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Galen's Four Humors During The Elizabethan Era

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He was able to compile all significant medical thoughts from Greece and Rome, too. In addition to that, he also incorporated his own discoveries and theories, foremost of which to Hippocrates’ work on the humoral basis of disease. This illness was thought to be the result of an imbalance of the four humors known as blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile (Hajar, 2012). Galen was the one who best endorsed the four humors. He referred these specific qualities to temperament or temperature. These qualities are thought to affect temperament such that the term is defined as the mixture of moisture and heat according to Galen. Moreover, in Galen’s treatise of On temperaments, he presented an optimal temperature in which all the four qualities …show more content…

Such behaviors does not only simply preoccupied the highest class of the societies or the elites. Shakespeare also made references to Galen in the fictional character named Falstaff. He referred to Galen in Henry IV, I. ii. 133, one of Shakespeare’s five references to Galen. These explicit references proved how this Galenic doctrine played an absolutely dominant role in the popular understanding of the human body during the Elizabethan era. Along with Shakespeare, Chaucer also made explicit use of the four humors. He related this doctrine to astrological lore for many components of characterization. This includes a person’s appearance physically, one’s goals and motivations, social position and profession and particularly one’s behavior under stress. The Galenic doctrine had become a rather primary metaphor in order to understand human life (Draper, …show more content…

Imagine the fame of Galen even into the most celebrated persons across different civilizations who also made big impacts on medicine. He was the source of breakthroughs which renders a ripple effect to other people who would also bring great breakthroughs until today. Some of them are also inspired by his works that they also surpassed his standards. With this thought, we then proceed to another chapter in which another contribution of Galen made another impact. This is now his contribution regarding the circulation of

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