Humors, Hormones, and Neurosecretions

[1962]

Fastier Science Fiction Collections QP187 H78 1962

[Albany]: State University of New York

Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BC), Aristotle (384-322 BC) and Galen (c. 129-216 AD) (pictured from top to bottom) were all responsible for disseminating the theory that the body, as a whole, was controlled by ‘Four Humours’. The theory, based on the ‘humours’ phlegm, blood, yellow bile and black bile, endured in medical thinking for 2000 years. Despite this erroneous theory, the ancient Greeks made many advances in medical science, divorcing themselves from the idea that the gods were the cause of health problems and beginning a tradition of using empirical evidence. Some relatively unknown characters in the field of ancient medicine are Herophilus (c. 335-280 BC) described as the ‘founder of scientific anatomy’; Erasistratus (c.304-250 BC), who was particularly interested in the anatomy of the brain; and Soranus (1st-2nd cent. AD), a gynaecologist who invented the speculum and the obstetric chair.