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Unfortunately, that's a bit of a false etymology! According to humorism, black bile [1] comes from the gallbladder, not the spleen. The spleen was supposed to p
by kamkha 10y ago
Unfortunately, that's a bit of a false etymology! According to humorism, black bile [1] comes from the gallbladder, not the spleen. The spleen was supposed to produce yellow bile, an excess of which was thought to cause aggression and anger.
[1] Black bile is actually the source of the term "melancholy" — from the Greek melankholia, from melan- ("black") and kholē ("bile")!
- tpeo 10y agoThe issue with spleen and black bile in humoralism isn't that it overproduces it, which it doesn't, but rather that it overaccumulates it. >“The gall, placed in the concave of the liver, extracts choler to it: the spleen, melancholy; which is situate on the left side, over against the liver, a spongy matter, that draws this black choler to it by a secret virtue [emphasis mine], and feeds upon it, conveying the rest to the bottom of the stomach, to stir up appetite, or else to the guts as excrement.” ~ Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy