The Humours: No laughing matter

Image via Wikipedia

You're probably familiar with scenes in historical dramas in which a character becomes ill and is then 'bled' by a physician. You've also probably wondered quite what that was supposed to achieve; nowadays, the idea of inflicting a further injury on an already sick person seems a bit bizarre. However, a few centuries go it all made perfect sense.

Up until the 18th - 19th centuries, medicine was strongly influenced by ancient Greek and Roman teachings, which included the concept of 'humours'. The humours were black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood, and it was believed these four elements were present in every human being. If a person was healthy, then their humours were in balance; if they fell ill, it was because their humours were imbalanced. Bleeding, either with leeches or through a deliberate wound, was the cure if the patient was found to have too much blood.

These practices continued for centuries, despite their inefficacy and were only supplanted with the advent of more modern medicine  - which ironically probably drew more on folk medicine, at least in terms of new drug treatments, than anything which was advocated by previous generations of the medical profession.

Further reading:

• Humorism on Wikipedia
• How humours affected personality

First Post

I had a theme in mind for this first post, but due to a series of irritating technical problems, setting up the blog took rather longer than I expected. So, I decided to focus on women for whom technology was also an interest, and highlight some interesting 19th century scientists.

Caroline Herschel, German astronomer and discoverer of comets

Caroline Herschel, an eminent astronomer at a time when it was a male preserve, she not only discovered a comet (which is named after her), in 1835 she also became the first woman to gain admittance to the Royal Astronomical Society.

Portrait of Dr Elizabeth Garret Anderson, first British woman to qualify as a doctor

Dr Elizabeth Garret Anderson became the first British woman to qualify as a medical doctor despite much opposition from the exclusively male medical establishment, who even went as far as changing entry rules to prevent other women training for apothecaries certificates. When Elizabeth later received her medical degree from the university of Paris, the British Medical Register refused to recognise it.

Ada Byron aka Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer prgrammer

Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace was encouraged to pursue the sciences by her mother who did not wish her to emulate her father, the notorious Lord Byron. As an adult, Ada became a close friend of computer pioneer Charles Babbage, and is credited with writing the first computer programme and also foreseeing the advent of computer composed music.