On Tue, 21 Nov 2000, Claudia Stanny wrote:
>
> > Who was it who originated the concept of "humors," related to
> > personality? Melancholic, etc.?
>
>
> I nominate Galen.
>
Hmmm. I don't really know anything about this, of course, but a
web search brings instant gratification. It tells me that Galen
was but a poor follower of the great Hippocrates, rather than an
original thinker of humorous thoughts himself.
Galen wrote the work _On the Elements According to Hippocrates_
which clearly shows who's the master and who the pupil. In Book
2, Galen says (and he should be commended for his care in
attribution):
492-493. This is a good time for me to move on to the second
topic. For Hippocrates, having shown that the common elements of
all existing things are hot and cold and dry and wet, next passes
to another kind of element which is neither primary nor common,
but particular to creatures with blood. For blood and phlegm and
yellow bile and black bile are elements of the origin not only of
man, but of all creatures with blood.
-translation W.J. Lewis
(at:
http://ancienthistory.tqn.com/homework/ancienthistory/gi/dynamic/
offsite.htm?site=http://www.ea.pvt.k12.pa.us/medant/hyprtxts.htm)
Hippocrates vs Galen is not turning out to be quite so tricky as
Gore vs Bush, is it?
-Stephen
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