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(350 BCE – 1858)
For 2000 years, European medicine was based on the humoralism theory of Galen (129–216) and Hippocrates (460– 370 BCE). According to humoralism, the human body is filled with four basic liquids, called humors, which are in balance when a person is healthy.
| Humor | Season | Element | Organ | Qualities | Temperament | Temperament characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blood | spring | air | liver | warm and moist | sanguine | courageous, hopeful, playful, carefree |
| Yellow bile | summer | fire | spleen | warm and dry | choleric | ambitious, leader-like, restless, easily angered |
| Black bile | autumn | earth | gallbladder | cold and dry | melancholic | despondent, quiet, analytical, serious |
| Phlegm | winter | water | brain/lungs | cold and moist | phlegmatic | calm, thoughtful, patient, peaceful |
Health could be maintained or restored by balancing the humors, and also by regulating air, diet, exercise, sleep, evacuation and emotion. Medical treatment consisted of enemas, bleeding, emetics (cause vomiting), laxatives (ease defecation), purgatives (strong laxatives), and cathartics (accelerate defecation).