Humoral Theory Research Articles

Bathing Practices as a Religious and Medical Encounter: Water, Climate and Health Across Monsoon Asia

This study explores the intersection between religious and medical bathing practices across Monsoon Asia, with particularly reference to āyurvedic and Buddhist traditions. While previous scholarship has emphasised the ritualistic and social dimensions of bathing in Brahmanical and Buddhist contexts, this article complements it with discussions of its medicinal and healing functions, as outlined in classical texts and displayed in material culture. The research highlights how bathing was considered essential for maintaining bodily balance—a concept analogous to humoral theory in Galenic medicine—across different climatic and environmental conditions, particularly during the monsoon season. The article further examines the transregional circulation and localisation of these practices, considering how diverse Asian cultures adapted Indic bathing traditions to their unique climatic and cultural contexts. Notably, the study addresses the complex interplay between religious doctrines, health and environmental factors, drawing connections between āyurvedic principles and Buddhist medical discourses. The findings suggest that while the notion of balance in bathing practices was widespread, its interpretation and implementation varied significantly across regions, reflecting local environmental and cultural influences. Through a comparative analysis of sources from South Asia, China and Southeast Asia, this article provides a nuanced understanding of how religio-medical bathing practices were shaped by and responded to the diverse climatic realities of Monsoon Asia.

On Sexuality and Persianate Modernity

ABSTRACT This article assesses sexuality as a crucial component of Persianate modernity in Alexander Jabbari’s The Making of Persianate Modernity. Drawing on the work of Joseph Massad, Afsaneh Najmabadi, and Michel Foucault, Jabbari argues that nineteenth- and twentieth-century literary historians erased premodern Persianate homoerotic desire to craft a “productive” vision of modernity. This erasure participated in a larger epistemic shift that located heteronormative coupling as useful for emerging nation-states. Alongside this erasure, the author points to other ruptures related to sexuality in Persianate modernity, such as the surfacing of a distinctly feminine voice that speaks of desire, the post-1980s adoption of LGBTQ+ identities by many in the modern Persianate world, and the loss of a premodern Islamic approach to romantic love understood as a disease within humoral medicine. Drawing from her own work, Kanner-Botan indicates how continuities in premodern Islamic approaches to love may serve as an additional counterpoint to the epistemic rupture caused by modern approaches to sexuality. Though the ruptures caused by modern approaches to sexuality in the Persianate world merit further research, Jabbari’s engagement with rupture counters the book’s overall focus on continuity by foregrounding the risks of nostalgia latent within the category of the Persianate itself.

Advancing Clinical Practice: The Potential of Multimodal Technology in Modern Medicine.

Multimodal technology is poised to revolutionize clinical practice by integrating artificial intelligence with traditional diagnostic modalities. This evolution traces its roots from Hippocrates' humoral theory to the use of sophisticated AI-driven platforms that synthesize data across multiple sensory channels. The interplay between historical medical practices and modern technology challenges conventional patient-clinician interactions and redefines diagnostic accuracy. Highlighting applications from neurology to radiology, the potential of multimodal technology emerges, suggesting a future where AI not only supports but enhances human sensory inputs in medical diagnostics. This shift invites the medical community to navigate the ethical, practical, and technological changes reshaping the landscape of clinical medicine.

Analysis of the contributions of Galenic medicine to pharmacology

Introduction: Pharmacology is commonly perceived as a field of study of modern medicine, however there were historical figures who, since ancient times, established the bases and properties of numerous drugs. Galen developed the foundations of pharmacology through observation and experimentation. . with various natural substances, including plants.Objective: Analyze the contributions of galenic medicine to the development of pharmacology and phytopharmacology.Methods: A literature review was carried out using academic databases such as PubMed, Scopus y Google Scholar, focusing on studies on Galen's contributions to the topic studied. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to select bibliographic sources, and a qualitative analysis of the extracted data was performed to synthesize the findings into relevant thematic categories.Results: Although Galen's research methods were not always ethical, nor were his conceptions of the human being completely accurate, his contribution to pharmacology is undeniable and fundamental. He transformed the pharmacology of his time, based on humoral theory, towards a rational and systematic classification of drugs, introducing concepts such as dosage and active ingredients. In addition, he established bases for phytopharmacology and conceptualized the minimum theoretical principles of toxicology.Conclusions: Galen made a series of reflections and associations of ideas that allowed him to accumulate extensive experience based on a scientific method that he himself promoted. This approach remains relevant today, evidencing the durability of his contributions to medical science.

A Review of the Regulatory Challenges of Personalized Medicine.

Personalized medicine integrates genomics with clinical and familial histories, revolutionizing healthcare by tailoring treatments to individual patient characteristics. At its core, pharmacogenomics enables the customization of medication prescriptions based on genetic profiles, enhancing drug efficacy and safety. This precision medicine approach addresses disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, offering targeted therapies for conditions like autoimmune disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and neoplastic conditions. Examples of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine include treatment for certain conditions like blood clotting disorders (warfarin (blood thinner), genetic variability, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) testing) in leukemia treatment. Historically, personalized medicine has evolved from Hippocrates' humoral theories to modern molecular diagnostics. The shift from cellular to molecular-level investigations has led to the current post-genomic era, emphasizing the four chemical components of DNA in understanding and treating disorders. This evolution enhances our ability to predict disease susceptibility, treatment response, and potential adverse reactions, demanding advancements in privacy laws, payment systems, regulatory standards, and education. Personalized healthcare optimizes treatment by considering genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors, reducing adverse reactions, and improving patient satisfaction. It drives genomic and biotechnological research, fostering the development of targeted therapies and diagnostic tools, and streamlining drug development. Applications in lung cancer, renal carcinoma, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) illustrate the efficacy of personalized medicine. Targeted therapies, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), show significant success in lung cancer. Biomarkers guide renal carcinoma treatments, while gene expression profiles predict rheumatoid arthritis outcomes with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) blockers. The US FDA's increasing approvals of personalized treatments underscore its commitment to precision medicine. However, regulatory challenges persist, necessitating clear processes and policies. Ethical considerations, including equitable access and privacy, are critical for responsible implementation. The FDA's increasing approvals of personalized treatments highlight its commitment to advancing precision medicine, yet regulatory challenges remain, requiring the development of clear processes and policies to manage innovation safely. While these hurdles are being addressed through evolving guidelines and collaborative efforts, ethical considerations, including equitable access and privacy, are critical for responsible implementation. Early examples, such as warfarin and imatinib, demonstrate the role of genetic information in guiding treatment, illustrating the potential of personalized medicine to optimize healthcare outcomes.

PSYCHOSOMATİCS: PSYCHOLOGİCAL CAUSES OF SOMATİC DİSEASES

There is always a balance between the physical and spiritual world of a person. When symmetry is broken in their joint activity, psychological problems arise, which are covered by the name of psychosomatics. In the article, the author considers these issues and notes that the problem of psychosomatics is one of the most pressing and complex problems of our time. The history of psychosomatics is ancient. The humoral theory of temperament of Hippocrates is considered the basis of psychosomatics. The author notes that the term psychosomatics was first used in 1818 by the German physician Heinroth. He analyzed various sources and grouped the causes of psychosomatic diseases and showed that the treatment of somatic diseases is carried out through long-term psychotherapy.

Conceptual Parallels: Microbiome Research and Ancient Medicine.

The concepts currently operating in much medical microbiome research bear a curious resemblance to an ancient tradition of Western medicine. This tradition, humoral medicine, is concerned with the four humors: yellow and black bile, phlegm, blood. Both humoral medicine and medical microbiome research use notions of imbalance and balance for broad explanations of disease and health. Both traditions also hold that the composition of humors or microbiomes determines bodily as well as mental states. Causality in each system is often conceived teleologically, meaning that humors or microbiomes "function for" the maintenance of the whole. And ultimately, each framework situates the humors or microbiomes in a multilevel interactionist theory that conceptualizes individual health within a broader environmental context. As well as critically assessing the parallels between these systems, this article sketches some explanations of how they may have arisen. The authors also evaluate the implications of these similarities for the future of medical microbiome research and suggest ways in which the field might move forward.

When DNA Mutations Interplay with Cellular Proliferation: A Narrative History of Theories of Carcinogenesis.

While cancer is one of the most documented diseases, how normal cells become cancerous is still debated. To address this question, in the first part of this review, we investigated the long succession of theories of carcinogenesis since antiquity. Initiated by Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, the humoral theory interpreted cancer as an excess of acid, the black bile. The discovery of the circulation of blood by Harvey in 1628 destroyed the basis of the humoral theory but revived the spontaneous generation hypothesis which was also promoted by Aristotle. In 1859, the theory of microbes promoted by Pasteur demonstrated the irrelevance of this last theory and contributed to the emergence of the germ cancer theory, opposed to the cellular theory of cancer, in which cancer was supposed to be caused by microbes or transformed cells, respectively. These theories were progressively refined by the notions of initiation, promotion, and progression thanks to advances in mutagenesis and cellular proliferation. In the second part of this review, recent discoveries and paradigms in carcinogenesis, notably the role of the protein ATM, a major actor of the stress response involved in both mutagenesis and cellular proliferation, were discussed to better understand the current state of the art of carcinogenesis.

Redefining Classical Theory of Humours (Akhlat) with Emphasis on Khilt-e-Sauda (Black Bile) Through its Physiological Role

Background: According to Hippocrates, Akhlat is of four types, i.e., Dam (Blood), Balgham (Phlegm), Safra (Yellow Bile), and Sauda (Black Bile). The correct proportion of these fluids in the body, in terms of quality and quantity, leads to health, while their irregular distribution leads to diseases. The argument presented in this paper will encompass both Tabayi and Ghair Tabayi Sauda. Objective: However, in light of recent advances in the area of molecular biology and biochemistry of the human body, we aim to discuss Sauda as a Khilt in the context of human physiology. We propose that the chemico-biological / physiological role of the molecule rather than its structure will define its placement in Khilt-e-Sauda. Conclusion: Chemico/biological role of the molecule may change with the physiological context, and hence the placement of the molecule previously included in the Khilt-e-Sauda, may or may not remain in that categorization at that point in time in that physiological state.

Bridging ancient wisdom and contemporary medical science: Contemplating on Hippocrates' Theory of Humours

Bridging ancient wisdom and contemporary medical science: Contemplating on Hippocrates' <i>Theory of Humours</i>

Girolamo Camerata and the Querelle des Femmes between Discourse and Paradox

In this article, I focus on the rhetoric of the querelle des femmes in the only book by Girolamo Camerata, Trattato dell’honor vero, et del vero dishonore (1567), offering a critical analysis of the chapter entitled “Questione dove si tratta chi più meriti honore o la donna, o l’huomo di M. Girolamo Camerata da Randazzo, Siciliano Dottor dell’Arti” (Question where it is discussed who merits more honour, woman or man, by Girolamo Camerata of Randazo, Sicilian Doctor of Arts). The main aim is to show how Camerata, in line with the prevalent rhetoric of the time and the other authors of the querelle des femmes, relies on androcentric literary codes (rhetoric within the androcentric cultural environment) and socially and culturally prescribed gender roles in order to provide reasons why women should be considered worthier of honour and more perfect than men. His work is an example of how arguments once used in reproach can paradoxically be reversed and serve the opposite aim (e.g., when the humoral theory is invoked to show that women are cold and therefore inferior, and then later to show that they are hot and therefore superior). Similarly, arguments citing bodily weakness as proof of mental inferiority can easily be turned to women’s advantage, connecting the body’s tenderness with greater mental activity.

Reconsidering the patient: pauvres malades and malades pauvres in eighteenth-century medical contexts

Abstract When humoral medicine gave way to more scientific approaches in the nineteenth century, the physician’s gaze changed. Amongst the epistemological transformations were representations and perceptions of the poor patient: the pauvre malade—a pauper who happened to be sick and was to be taken care of by traditional medical charities—became a malade pauvre, a sick person who happened to be poor and was to be treated in new institutions. This article explores these changes but in settings beyond the clinic. In three case studies, we explore the practice of the Genevan physician Louis Odier, the management of the poor in the French spa of Saint-Amand and, finally, treatises about British spas. The agency of physicians, administrators and the poor themselves are analysed. Physicians played an ambiguous role. Some resisted innovation and refused to consider the poor as suffering from the same diseases as the affluent; others made opportunistic use of case histories, including those of the poor, to convince richer patients of the benefits of specific treatments, thereby reinforcing ‘class-blind’ ontological conceptions of disease. Administrators, for their part, tended to see the poor foremost as patients and put pressure on physicians to arrive at precise diagnoses.

Importance of Examination of Rasūb (Sediments) in Uroscopy

Uroscopy is the macroscopic examination of urine, and it is an important diagnostic tool in Unani medicine. The findings of uroscopy are linked with the humoral theory of medicine. Human Urine is the first fluid that was examined for medical purposes. There are seven parameters in uroscopy, each parameter is studied in detail and then the conclusion is drawn based on the findings of all. Examination of urinary sediments is one of the parameters in uroscopy. In urine, sediment is a denser and differentiable component from the watery constituent. The features of urinary sediment vary a lot in different physiological and pathological conditions of the body that are of medical importance. It is an evident fact that sediment makes up the solute component of urine, which is the waste product of hepatic digestion. One of these seven indicators that uroscopy analyses, is the inspection of urine sediment. The amount, color, homogeneity, position, and rate of sedimentation of the sediments are taken into account to ascertain the state of the body from them, and careful correlation is made with the results of other parameters. Keywords: Urine, Urine sediment, Uroscopy, Unani medicine, Urinalysis

A surfeit of lampreys – a true story or a myth?

ABSTRACT Lampreys were considered a delicacy among most royal families and the nobility in medieval Britain. The tradition was for the people to present the monarch with a lamprey pie once a year. King Henry I (1068–1135) of England was known for his lust for eating lampreys and is reported to have died from a “surfeit of lampreys,” as the chronicle said. The information concerning this event is scarce, confined to only two sources, the chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon and the history of Roger of Wendover. Both write about Henry’s death, but only the former mentions its cause, albeit without many details. It remains a mystery then whether the king died from gluttony, or maybe from food poisoning or some other reason. The author of the article describes the circumstances of Henry’s death and presents the arguments to justify the probable cause of it. Medieval dietetics has been used as a springboard to writing about the importance of fish in the diet despite its unfavorable opinion in the light of the theory of humors. Fish were believed to predominate in cold and moist humors, which, in terms of humoral theory, is particularly dangerous to anyone in cold and moist seasons.

About the first publication of I.M. Sechenov. (To the 195th anniversary of his birth)

Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov is a Russian physiologist, a natural scientist, and the creator of the Russian physiological school. The classic work «Reflexes of the Brain», published in 1863, became revolutionary in its own way for medicine and society, since the reflex nature of conscious and unconscious activity was proved. Along with numerous well-known scientific works, there is an early student publication in the Moscow Medical Journal published by A. I. Polunin. It describes the medical history of a patient with a tumor who was unsuccessfully treated for a long time in accordance with the humoral theory of pathology. This publication makes it possible to understand why I. M. Sechenov became disillusioned with practical medicine, but found his vocation in the study of physiology. The article is devoted to the 195th anniversary of the birth of I. M. Sechenov.

ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЕ ТЕЛО, МИКРОКОСМ И ЗОДИАКАЛЬНЫЙ ЧЕЛОВЕК: МЕТАФОРА ТЕЛА В АНГЛИЙСКОМ И ФРАНЦУЗСКОМ РЕЛИГИОЗНО-ФИЛОСОФСКОМ И ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОМ ДИСКУРСЕ XIV–XV ВВ.

One of the most popular concepts during the Antiquity and Middle Ages was the metaphor of the body which manifested the ideas of unity and coexistence in harmony of various parts of the whole. It was closely tied up with the mythological imagery of protoplast on one hand and with the conceptualization of social unity on the other, for example, with the concept of Church as the mystical body of Christ. Microcosm was one of the embodiments of this image representing the idea of the indissoluble existence of the individual, his body and the rest of the world — this concept continued to be reproduced in the religious/philosophical texts of XIV–XVth cc. From this doctrine of microcosm also arose the Medieval medical theory of humors, fluids of human body, associated with four elements, at the meantime “zodiac man” was the equivalent of microcosm in Medieval astrology, visual representation of a belief in the impact of celestial bodies on the health and mental qualities of people. Finally, the metaphor of the body politic clearly demonstrated the unity of different estates in a single body of the state, it can be considered one of the first forms of reflection on society and politics in the XIV–XV centuries.

"Heroic" medicine in neurology: A historical perspective.

Repetitive bloodletting, promoting profuse diarrhoea and vomiting, the formation of artificial ulcers, and other aggressive treatment methods based on humoral theory and Brunonian medicine were used for patients with nervous system (NS) diseases until the end of the 19th century. These methods are also termed "heroic" medicine by modern medical historians. I analysed doctoral dissertations on the subject of NS diseases, clinical reports from 1806 to 1842 from the Vilnius University clinics, and other primary sources. This study was conducted in the vein of a historical-medical analysis and synthesis of primary sources, using comparative analysis, analogy, descriptive methods, and the method of retrospective diagnosis. Copious bloodletting, purgatives, leeches, cupping therapy, and other potentially harmful methods were frequently employed as habitual treatments for patients with NS diseases. Calomel was used as a purgative and an anti-inflammatory drug, and acidum borussicum was prescribed for patients with hydrophobia. After analysing three clinical cases, I revealed how principles of desperate, "heroic" medicine were applied to treat severe NS diseases with the "strongest" drugs, described in the scientific literature of the time. My work was not intended to judge or criticize historical treatment methods but to demonstrate on what contemporary scientific theories they were based. We should not rule out the idea that some aggressive treatment methods used nowadays, although they eradicate or reduce the burden of a NS disease, or even prolong patients' lives, may offer exceptional examples of 21st century "heroic" medicine for future generations.

The earliest English culinary recipes: dietary advice in Old English medical texts

ABSTRACT The earliest culinary recipes written in the English language, or in England, are contained in the three main Old English medical collections, now known as Bald’s Leechbook, Leechbook III and the Lacnunga, dating from the tenth, or possibly late ninth, to eleventh centuries. These recipes reveal contemporary ideas about the suitability of various foods for people experiencing various conditions, but not for a generalised ‘healthy diet’, nor indeed for the diet of the population at large in England at the time. They form part of a fairly substantial body of dietary advice, drawing quite heavily on a Latin tradition that was common to most of Western Europe, which betrays clear traces of humoral theory.

Constructing the Infant Body: The Intervention of the Educated, Male Physician in Eighteenth-Century Infant Diet

Drawing on medical advice literature, this paper examines the cultural history of the body in infancy in eighteenth-century England. This period saw the increasing professionalization of the medical field, particularly regarding children’s health, as an emerging profession of educated, male physicians sought to establish their exclusive authority on the medical market. As England’s medical market of the time was largely unregulated, these educated physicians competed with apothecaries, midwives, and female nurses for paying customers. Physicians argued that the disorderly, undisciplined nature of the infant body was incongruent with Enlightenment virtues, and therefore required a greater degree of medical management. Emerging out of this discourse were popular advice books which emphasized preventative measures in already-healthy infant patients. They were authored by a growing profession of educated, medical experts and were addressed to a lay audience of parents and child caretakers. This paper examines three immensely popular pamphlets authored by three physicians, Thomas Beddoes, George Armstrong, and William Cadogan. All three emphasized in their tracts the importance of maternal breastfeeding to the infant diet, citing Enlightenment ideals, humoral theory, and even the supernatural elements of breastmilk to support this claim. To bring the child body firmly under the control of the medical establishment, they argued that uneducated, lay practitioners, who were overwhelmingly female, received no formal education in the sciences and thus possessed little understanding of the nuances and complexities specific to the infant body. Parents were also incapable and deficient, at least to some degree, in the formal knowledge necessary to prevent illness in their infant children, and thus should rely on the physician’s expertise regarding the care of the infant body.

Purgation therapy (bhedhi) in the treatment of Trigeminal neuralgia and evaluation using Siddha diagnostic tool neerkuri and neikuri – A Case study

Siddha science is an immortal science, which has its origin from ‘Siddhars’. The Siddha system is mainly based on the humoral theory. The three humors namely Vatham, Pitham and Kapham. Any increase or decrease in the ratio of the three humors causes disease in the human body. In the Siddha system of medicine, diseases are classified into 4448 in number. Out of these Yugi Munivar classified Vatham as 80 types. The symptoms of Trigeminal Neuralgia come under this Vatha classification. The elevated Vatham is decreased by giving purgation therapy based on the quote ‘Bhedhiyaal Vatham Thaalum’. Agasthiyar Kuzhambu is one of the best commonly used purgative medicine in the Siddha System.Trigeminal neuralgia is one of the painful disorders involving the fifth cranial nerve and causes severe unilateral pain in the face over regions supplied by the branches of the trigeminal nerve[5]. The present study is conducted to know the efficacy of Siddha Purgation Therapy for the management of trigeminal neuralgia on the basis of the quote “Bhedhiyaal Vatham Thaalum”. A female patient of 56 years, diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia approached our hospital and got purgation therapy using Agasthiyar Kuzhambu for 3 days. Patient complaints were assessed before and after treatment with 1) Siddha diagnostic tool neerkuri and neikuri, 2) Questionnaire about increased Vatha symptoms and 3)Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain scale. After giving Agasthiyar Kuzhambu follow up the patient she got relieved from their symptoms and got satisfactory results with the Siddha line of management. The possible understanding of the case and therapeutic protocol in Siddha has been discussed.