Many beliefs amount menstruation in the early modern period were linked to humorism, the system of medicine introduced by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians. People believed that the human body contained four humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.[1] Illnesses and problems were understood as being caused by dyscrasia, or an imbalance in the four humours. Treatments for disease had the aim of restoring a balance, curing the patient. The humoral model was a continuity during the early modern period, despite the fact that new medical theories began to arise in the second half of the eighteenth century, because these new ideas which used different treatments involving new chemicals were not as trusted since they were not properly established.[2]
Alchemic approach to four humors in relation to the four elements and zodiacal signs. Book illustration in Quinta Essentia by Leonhart Thurneisser zum Thurn (gen. Leonhard Thurneysser). Inscriptions (clockwise): Flegmat, Sanguin, Coleric, Melanc. Person is androgyne.
In this way, medical and popular beliefs about menstrual problems such as irregular menstruation, amenorrhea (absence of periods whilst fertile) or dysmenorrhea (painful periods) were thought of in relation to the four humours.[3] In early modern western Europe, physicians believed that the womb could not be too cold, hot, moist or dry and that an excess in any of these could impact a woman's fertility.[4] Significantly, people believed that warmth encouraged sexual pleasure and increased the probability of conceiving a child, meaning that the womb had to be warm during intercourse. If a woman was found to be having problems menstruating which would then impact their fertility, remedies which aimed to alter the humoral state of the body were used. Aphrodisiacs were a common remedy given to women with menstrual problems, since they were believed to have internal heating effects, stimulating menstruation by redressing the constitutional balance of a womb that was too cold.[5]
^Hippocrates (1983). Hippocratic writings. G. E. R. Lloyd, John Chadwick, W. N. Mann ([New] ed., with additional material, repr. in Penguin classics ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044451-3. OCLC 10501704.
^Read, Sara (2013). Menstruation and the female body in early-modern England (1st ed.). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire. ISBN 978-1-137-35502-7. OCLC 852225082.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Crawford, Patricia (2014). Blood, bodies and families in early modern England. Abingdon, Oxon. ISBN 978-1-317-87686-1. OCLC 927103701.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Evans, Jennifer (2014). Aphrodisiacs, Fertility and Medicine in Early Modern England. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-78204-368-3. OCLC 890980805.
^Evans, J. (2012-02-01). "'Gentle Purges corrected with hot Spices, whether they work or not, do vehemently provoke Venery': Menstrual Provocation and Procreation in Early Modern England". Social History of Medicine. 25 (1): 2–19. doi:10.1093/shm/hkr021. hdl:2299/11721. ISSN 0951-631X.
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