Behind the expression “being of good (or bad) mood”, a historical past of drugs | EUROtoday

On Jul 12, 2025

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La Theory of moods derives from a philosophy developed by Aristotle in response to which the concord of the world is determined by the steadiness which exists between the 4 components which might be water, hearth, air and earth. In people, these components can be discovered within the type of 4 substances known as “moods”: lymph (or phlegm), blood, yellow bile and black bile. Just as world cohesion outcomes from the best way through which the 4 components work together, well being within the particular person is outlined as an entire concord between moods.

The illness happens when a dyscrasia creates, that’s to say a rupture of this concord. Each temper is assimilated to a component, a season, an organ and environmental qualities – scorching or chilly, dry or humid. The yellow bile, produced by the liver or the gallbladder, is scorching and dry, linked to fireplace and summer time. His extra tends to extend fevers. Black bile, chilly and dry, is related to earth and fall. Secreated by the spleen, it interprets an anxious character.

The lymph, coming from the mind, is chilly and humid, related to water and winter. We think about {that a} surplus of lymph is on the origin of secretions which conventionally accompany winter pathologies: rhinitis, bronchitis, and many others. Blood, heat and humid, is linked to air and spring. It is produced by the guts or, relying on sure variations, by the liver, corresponding to yellow bile. The ancients believed that it was within the spring that the blood was most ample within the physique and that it was due to this fact a interval conducive to the follow of bleeding.

Auguste Lumière, defender of humoral idea

The look of signs is perceived because the consequence of an extra or deficit temper inside the physique. However, this imbalance doesn’t solely generate bodily signs: moods additionally affect the temperament of the person. It is due to this fact by analyzing the conduct of his affected person that the physician will search to ascertain the humoral dysfunction he suffers, and suggest the remedy which appears applicable to his scenario.

For instance, an individual with an excessive amount of blood will are inclined to rush their duties and disperse, through which case it is going to be prescribed. The different surplus moods can be evacuated by totally different purgatives: emetic, laxatives or utility of suction cups. These means can be utilized in explicit within the neurasthenic, stuffed with black bile, or within the one who reveals extreme self -confidence, with an inclination to impulsiveness, as many indicators indicating an overabundance of yellow bile. The practitioner can also suggest this affected person to take chilly baths and drink contemporary water to thwart the dry warmth related to yellow bile. Conversely, to a person manifestly stuffed with lymph, chilly and humid, the physician will quite suggest consuming meals deemed “hot”, corresponding to wine or spicy dishes.

The idea of moods already existed earlier than Hippocrates, however the latter largely contributed to its dissemination, in addition to Galien. The idea will anchor in a sustainable manner in medical follow, and can mark the historiography of the career for hundreds of years. Auguste Lumière, engineer who lived between the XIX^e and the XX^e A century and primarily identified for having created together with his brother Louis the primary cinematograph, was additionally a biologist and was nonetheless meant to be an ardent defender of humoral idea.

Since then, rationality and science have definitively buried this doctrine, not less than on a medical degree. Because, if there may be an space through which its affect remains to be felt, it’s that of literature. The French language is teeming with phrases and expressions which derive from this idea, particularly with regard to the lexical area of feelings.

An extra of blood temper

To declare your self as “good” or “bad” temper is just one instance amongst many others. Thus, the atrabile, the opposite identify below which was identified to the black bile, is a phrase in the present day fell into disuse however which is discovered within the subtitle of Misanthrope From Molière, “Atrabilaire in love”. The time period designates an irascible particular person, identical to Alceste, the primary character of the play. In addition, for the ancients, the black bile was presupposed to be produced by the spleen, which is alleged spleen In English, a time period that evokes melancholy. Fall would promote the manufacturing of black bile, which might clarify the seasonal melancholy which tends to settle at the moment of the 12 months. It was the black bile that gave the expression “to be bile”.

The phrase “angry” comes from Latin cholerawhich implies “bile”. In the idea of moods, the so -called indignant people, inclined to outburst, are usually these in whom the yellow bile predominates, therefore the time period “bilious”. The lymph in the present day designates the blood liquid through which lymphocytes, important cells for immunity, bathe. The phlegm is a time period by which the secretions that seem when the lymph is in extra. He gave start to the phrase “Phlegmon”, which corresponds to a non -infectious swelling, but in addition to the adjective “phlegmatic”, which applies to explain a relaxed and imperturbable particular person, traits related to folks in whom the lymph predominates.

Contrary to what one may assume, an extra of blood temper was not related to a fast temperament with violence. During antiquity, a blood temperament quite induced pleasure, even euphoria, not like different moods which have been usually related to traits of unfavorable character. The concept that fluids can affect temperament could make us smile in the present day. It can be to overlook that comparable beliefs stay, within the picture of Japanese superstition which would love the blood group to outline the character of the person, in what’s akin to a contemporary and extremely-eastern variant of the idea of moods. During the XX^e Century, Japanese tradition had certainly developed a idea in response to which optimistic and unfavorable traits might be connected to the blood group.

Read too Hippocrates: ethics and rules of drugsFor instance, group A folks have been perceived as sufferers and accountable, however lonely and anxious in nature. Those in group B have been deemed to be artistic and perfectionists, whereas being irresponsible and devoid of crew spirit. Those of the AB group have been presupposed to be calm and sociable however undecided, whereas these of group O have been thought of to be energetic however trace. An ideology which was not with out penalties, because it was capable of result in instances of discrimination inside corporations, who refused to recruit sure folks on the grounds that their blood group made them incompatible with the specified place, or that the “quota” of a sure group was already reached.

Although buried, the idea of moods was a significant advance in the best way the illness was apprehended. While earlier than it was estimated that almost all pathologies have been the consequence of a divine punishment, in response to a person or collective fault, the idea of moods, by attributing the prevalence of illnesses to endogenous or environmental origin quite than a curse, has profoundly modified this paradigm.

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The kangaroo of the day

Answer

* Dr. Raphaël Camus, writer of the e book “Fifty anecdotes on the history of medicine” (ed. Perrin, 352 p., 21 euros).

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