Early modern Europeans had a distinct set of views regarding health and disease that was based in the doctrine of humoralism. The tenets of humoralism were initially developed by the Hippocratic physicians of ancient Greece, and they were further refined by the Roman physician Galen of Pergamum. It proved to be a logical and highly adaptable system, which is one of the reasons why it remained the dominant medical theory for over one thousand years.
At first glance, humoralism is fairly straightforward. It operated on the belief that the body was governed by four fluids, or humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Each one of the humors had its own inherent characteristics that were tied to the qualities of the four classical elements. Blood related to air (hot and wet) and was sanguine, yellow bile related to fire (hot and dry) and was cholerick, black bile related to earth (cold and dry) and was melancholic, and phlegm related to water (cold and wet) and was phlegmatic. The key to good health lay in making sure that all four humors lay in balance with each other.
The Becker Library recently acquired a copy of Thomas Walkington’s The Opticke Glasse of Humors. It includes a chart that lays out the relationship between humoral complexion, age, season, cardinal direction, element, celestial body, and zodiac signs. It goes:
· Cholerick: Youth; Summer; West; Fire; Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
· Sanguine: Adolescence; Spring; South; Air; Jupiter; Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
· Phlegmatick: Adulthood; Autumn; East; Water; the Moon; Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
· Melancholick: Old Age; Winter; North; Earth; Saturn; Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
The very top of the chart has two small illustrations of the universities at Oxford and Cambridge. This is probably an intentional nod to Walkington himself, who earned degrees at both institutions.
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