Ancient Greek and Roman system of medicine involving four fluid types
This article is about humors in ancient and medieval medicine. For the related theory of temperaments, see Four temperaments. For humors in Ayurveda, see Dosha. For the use of humor in writing or public speaking, see Humorist.
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 17th century and it was definitively disproved in the 1850s with the advent of germ theory, which was able to show that many diseases previously thought to be humoral were in fact caused by microbes.