FOUR CARDINAL HUMOURS. 987 



He maintained, that these four primary hu- 

 mours were all specifically different from each 

 other in temperature, colour, consistence, &c. ; 

 that red blood is hot and moist ; yellow bile hot 

 and dry ; black bile cold and dry ; phlegm cold 

 and moist,* that when the elements and humours 

 were duly mixed, the constitution was perfect, 

 and the tendency to disease in proportion to the 

 deviation from this balanced mixture, K/OCKTIC, or 

 temper amentum. (De Nat. Humana, 5, 6.) 



That the phlegm of Hippocrates was not 

 merely the secretion termed mucus, but included 



* In the Treatise De Structura Hominis, he maintains that red 

 blood predominates in spring, because it is then often discharged 

 from the nose spontaneously; and that it is warm and moist 

 because the season is so : that yellow bile superabounds during 

 summer, because it is then frequently vomited spontaneously; and 

 like the season was hot and dry, therefore the cause of fevers : 

 that black bile predominated during autumn, being cold and dry, 

 because the season was so ; and during old age, which he regarded 

 as the autumn of life, when the blood is watery and impoverished, 

 causing a predisposition to melancholy and sadness. (Epidemics, 

 Lib. vi. Sect. 1, 2.) Finally, he supposed that phlegm was cold 

 and moist, because, during winter, when the atmosphere is cold 

 and moist, it is more abundant than at any other season ; and as 

 it is discharged from the lungs or throat during catarrh, influenza, 

 pneumonia, phthisis, &c. he regarded it as the predisposing cause 

 of those diseases. All this is very absurd and fanciful ; for 

 although it be true, that all diseases of the respiratory organs are 

 more prevalent during winter than summer, and the secretion of 

 mucus or phlegm more copious ; they are merely concomitant 

 effects of cold. In like manner, the excess of bile and the pre- 

 valence of fevers during summer, are merely effects of an elevated 

 temperature, impure air. and other causes that arrest or diminish 

 digestion, and the formation of chyme. 



