Galen and the Four Humours

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the four humors and how you must observe and record the symptoms to help you treat disease. I believe that man's body is made up of four key ‘humors’; these are blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Blood of course is hot and moist, phlegm is cold and wet, yellow bile is hot and dry and black bile is cold and dry. When all four humours are properly balanced, a man is in perfect health, but when there is too much or too little of one of the humours, or it is entirely missing from the body, illness or disease occurs. Through observation we are able to see which of the humours are out of balance; this can then be treated with opposites. For instance if a man has too much phlegm, which is cold and wet, he should be treated with something hot and fiery such as pepper. You can learn all about them by reading one of my books you know, so far I have written more than sixty of them.