Medical Ideas from the Ancient World in the Middle Ages

The Ancient Greeks came up with an idea of what caused disease. Now remember this.


Hippocrates came up with the idea of The Four Humours

The Four Humours was a theory that the body was made up of four liquids.
Blood
Phlegm
Black Bile
Yellow Bile

The idea was that if any of these four humours were out of balance, somebody would become ill.
Examples:
1. if you had a temperature, your skin went red and hot because you had too much blood
2. Having a dark lump was a result of having too much bile.

There was the belief that these humours were linked to the four seasons (which you most likely know) AND the idea of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water). Winter was linked to water, and therefore your body produced a lot of phlegm. However, we know that this is known as the common cold.




So in Greek times, treatment was based on this theory.

Later, in the 2nd century, Galen thought of the Theory of Opposites