Using the Four Elements to Cure Illness

Living In modern times we take for granted the simplicity of getting rid of a bothersome cold or a pesky cough, but back in the 1400’s such things were less of an annoyance and more so of a deadly threat.  A system was created around this time called the Four Humors. 

The system was based off categories of four.  The first category being based on symptom were the bodily humors.  Yellow Bile, black bile, phlegm and blood were the four symptoms.  Once your symptom had been determined, you were then matched up with a season.  Yellow bile matched up to summer, black bile matched up with autumn, Phlegm with winter, and blood with spring.  Now that seasons had been assigned, each symptom was associated with an element.

Earth to bile as too much earth made one melancholic.

Air to blood as too much air made one sanguine.

Fire to yellow bile as too much fire made one choleric.

Water to phlegm as too much water made one phlegmatic.

…Or so it was believed.

Each element then held a certain quality relating back to the illness. Earths qualities were cold and dry, air’s qualities were hot and moist, waters qualities cold and moist, and fire’s qualities were hot and dry.  With the above information being assigned a physician then had what they thought to be the perfect recipe to cure the illness.  The physician would then prescribe according activities in order to imbalance the current humor.  For example, if you had a fever with yellow bile, your element being fire which is hot and dry, meant that you were to increase your amount of phlegm by taking cold baths. 

This method of curing illness sounds quite silly and quite lacking of real science but it was in fact a huge advancement at the time as it wasn’t based around the supernatural as it had been previously.

Works Cited

Gill, N.S. “The Seasons and Elements of the Four Bodily Humors.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 29 July 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/four-humors-112072.