Scholarly Source 9

Citation: Ayoub, L. (1995). Old English wta and the Medical Theory of the Humours. The
Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 94(3), 332-346.
Source Validation: This journal article was found on JSTOR, a reliable scholarly database.
How did you find this source: I did extensive research on the JSTOR database until I came
upon this source and deemed it valuable and relative to my research.
Intended audience: This journal article is definitely intended for educated historians. I had a
hard time reading it myself; the vocabulary is deeply profound, and it even switches to Latin at
some points with minimal translation.
Topics: This source is deeply rooted in the theory of the four humors. They are directly based off
of Empedocles four elements, building off the idea that the elements contrast each other (earth
vs. air, fire vs. water). It also goes into discussion of how the humors relate to human health; if
one of the humors is out of balance, illness occurs. The humors, therefore, must be
counterbalanced with their contrasts (blood vs. black bile, phlegm vs. yellow bile). This theory
was somewhat involved in the practice of blood-letting in an extreme attempt to balance the
humors. The article also discusses dynameis, which is human nutrition, or body composition. If
dynameis is thrown off balance, say, by only consuming one food, illness occurs.
Quotes:
1) Through the introduction of a food or drink having a dynamis that is separated off,
and, hence, is apparent and harmful, or through some other cause, a dynamis comes to be
by itself in the body. This state is equivalent to disease. The body reacts by attempting to
mix other dynameis, not necessarily the opposite dynamis, in with the one that is
separated off. If this attempt is successful, a crisis occurs, the variant dynamis is
exhausted in the mixture, and the resulting concoction is expelled from the body. If it is
unsuccessful, the disease grows worse and the patient eventually dies.
2) The first of these has to do with the kind of thing proposed as the arche of the cause of
disease on hypothesis-based theories as opposed to the kind of thing cited as responsible
for disease on the theory of dynameis. With a hypothesis -based theory the physician
presumes that a particular element is responsible for all disease.
3) Those who rely on a hypothesis take the cause of diseases to be the same in all cases in a
way that would suggest that one treatment should prove effective for all diseases. If the
hot is the cause of all diseases, then the cold, suitably administered, must be the treatment
for all diseases.