(1) He not only lists its uses, but tries to explain its actions: for example, ‘The emulsion of the seed is good for the jaundice, if there be ague accompanying it, for it opens obstructions of the gall, and causes digestion of choler .’(2) Midway through the book, I discover a page written entirely in French, from a 1614 medical textbook, describing the four humours (blood, choler , melancholy and phlegm) and what each tasted like; what each was good for.(3) There are also four elements: fire, earth, air and water; and four humors - choler or yellow bile, melancholer or black bile, blood and phlegm.(4) When he says that hops purges choler , he doesn't mean in the same way as scammony does because scammony could kill you if given in excessive doses but hops will probably just put you to sleep.(5) The humoral theory, on the other hand, viewed disease as an imbalance among the body's four basic principles: blood (the sanguine, or wet-hot, humor), phlegm (sluggish, or wet-cold), choler (dry-hot), and melancholy (dry-cold).(6) While ministers talked of ‘demonic possession,’ doctors attributed mental illnesses to an imbalance of the four bodily ‘humors’: blood, phlegm, choler , and black bile.(7) The big head, bright eyes, and steely mouth suggest brains, pride, and choler .
