The Greeks began to move away from
more
Why did the Ancient Greeks develop the Theory of the Four Humours and was it progress?
ideas about the cause of illness and moved towards a
approach. Scientific thinkers could not accept magical causes of finess because they could
Greek factors their patients carefully and saw that when people were ill they often had
coming out of the body. For example, if a person was feeling sick they might and bring up
To the Greeks this meant that the body had too much of this liquid in it and it was trying to get rid of it to
restore the of the humours. The idea also fit in nicely with the Greek view that everything was made
Everything in the world was made up of
up of four
and
There were also four-
in the year. It was natural then that they should believe that the body was made up of four things.
ELEMENTS
SUPERNATURAL
OBSERVED
SEASONS
BALANCE
LIQUID
FIRE
not be
a
VOMIT
DIET
AIR
EARTH
LOGICAL
OBSERVE
E
WATER
BILE
The main way that this theory represented progress was that it was a long way from blaming illness on --
--This meant that the Hippocratic doctors had begun to search for the real causes of illness instead
of simply blaming the-It encouraged doctors to closely their patients and look at their. As
such as changing their
a result, doctors often encouraged their patients to make changes to their
or-, Unfortunately, some of the treatments doctors prescribed such as
or getting more
-- could be dangerous because of the risk of and would not have helped to make people better.
The Four Humours theory also held medicine back for the next 2000 years, because it was incorrect.
Doctors kept their faith in the idea and so they failed to find the real causes of illness.
GODS
INFECTION
EVIL SPIRITS
LIFESTYLE
PROVED
BLEEDING
SYMPTOMS
REST
EXERCISE
You are a recently qualified doctor in Greece and you are a follower of Hippocrates and rational
medicine. During an interview for your first job you are asked a series of questions:
How many liquids or humours is the human body made up of?
Name these liquids?
What is it that causes the body to be ill?
What can affect the humours in your body and make you ill?
Which season of the year is each humour linked to?
What treatments would you recommend for a person who is ill?
What general advice would you give to a patient to prevent them from getting at?
What do you think of those people who still put their faith in the power of Gods such as Asclepios?