The Four Elements and the Four Humours

The Greek philosopher/scientist Empedocles (490-430 B.C.) was the person who first thought up the theory of the four elements. Empedocles said that the whole world was made up of four elements, or roots: earth, air, fire, and water. They were governed by two forces: love, which brought them together, and strife, which drove them apart. Later on, the elements aquired four qualities: moist, hot, dry, and cold. Water was moist and cold; air was most and hot; earth was dry and cold; fire was dry and hot.

Empedocles also applied the four elements to medicine. He said that normally, the body had a balance of the elements; disease was brought on by an unbalance of the elements. This was later expanded to be the four liquids, or humours: phlegm, blood, black bile, and yellow bile. Water was associated with phlegm, air with yellow bile, earth with black bile, and fire with blood.

The four humours were so widely accepted that we have many words derived from them today. Humour, in the sense of a disposition, comes from the humours. Phlegmatic means stolid and unemotional; sanguine (from the Latin word for blood) means cheerful and optimistic; melancholic (from black bile) means depressed; and choleric (from yellow bile) means angry. These words come from the supposed affects of the humours on someone's attitude.

Bibliography

Youngson, Robert. Scientific Blunders. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998.