Rishon Rishon

The four humors

I got a laugh out of this comment from Amritas, in response to a comparison of European and “indigenous” education:

Is European education inhuman? Isn't it ... 'indigenous' to Europe?

It reminds me of a bone to pick that I have with the proponents of traditional medicine: the traditional medicine of Europe seems to be ignored, though exceedingly logical. It is based on the theory of the four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile. Disease is a result of them becoming imbalanced, so when you're sick, steps are taken to rebalance them. Since the cause of many diseases is an excess of blood, the cure for many diseases is bleeding.

Why is the traditional medicine of Europe ignored? Surely it is unnatural to treat Europeans with foreign traditional medicine!

Propoents of traditional medicine will surely say I'm simplifying things, so here's an account of how it was practiced on George Washington.

Dr. Craik arrived shortly after nine o'clock and hurried to his friend's bedside. He diagnosed Washington's illness as "inflammatory quinsy," an infection of the throat. He applied a blister of cantharides externally to the throat, hoping to draw the inflammation to the surface, and he performed a second bleeding. Washington inhaled a steaming mixture of vinegar and water, but he could not gargle the potion of vinegar and sage tea offered him. By this time, he was unable even to cough effectively, although encouraged to do so by Dr. Craik. Upon seeing no improvement in Washington's condition, Craik bled him for a third time.