Blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile: the bodys four humours were believed to control your personality in Shakespeares day and influenced the way the Bard created some of his most famous characters.

What are the 4 bodily humours?

Courtesy National Library of Medicine. Greek physician Hippocrates (ca. 460 BCE–370 BCE) is often credited with developing the theory of the four humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—and their influence on the body and its emotions.

What is yellow bile in old times?

Noun. 1. yellow bile - a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the liver and to cause irritability and anger. choler. bodily fluid, body fluid, liquid body substance, humour, humor - the liquid parts of the body.

The ‘Four Temperaments’ in Ancient and Medieval Medicine

It's indisputable that medicine has come a long way in the last 200 years, but do you know just how many advances have been made? The four humors were thought to be sanguine bloodcholeric yellow bilemelancholic black bileand phlegmatic phlegm and their composition within the body was considered to determine a patient's personality and health concerns.

Every human body was thought to contain some measure of each of these humors. Let's take a closer look!

Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates was a proponent of the four humors theory Courtesy of simple reminders. You heard right - leeches were used to bleed sick people! Interestingly, chamomile, which is currently often used in teas meant to calm and relax you, was frequently used to treat what was perceived to be an excess of this humor.

Chamomile tea is often used to calm and relax Courtesy of secretlyhealthy. Coughing might have been considered a sign of an overabundance of the phlegmatic humor Courtesy of slideshare. Although this theory is no longer in use, there are things that medical professionals have learned from it, such as the use of herbs to alleviate symptoms of some illnesses.

Personally, I'm just glad that no doctors is coming to my house with leeches! Which of the four humors do you think represents you?