choler

ancient physiology

Also known as: yellow bile

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June 24, 2026

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In ancient Western physiology, "choler" referred to yellow bile, one of the four cardinal humors believed to determine a person's temperament and health. A predominance of choler was thought to make a person easily angered, irritable, proud, ambitious, and shrewd. The term "choleric" describes someone with this temperament, easily moved to excessive anger. This theory of humors, including blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy, was influential in medicine for centuries, with health believed to depend on their harmonious balance.12345

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humour
…cardinal humours were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile); the variant mixtures of these humours in different persons determined their “complexions,” or “temperaments,” their physical and mental qualities, and their dispositions. The ideal person had the ideally proportioned mixture of the four; a predominance of one produced…
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…cardinal humours were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile); the variant mixtures of these humours in different persons determined their “complexions,” or “temperaments,” their physical and mental qualities, and their dispositions. The ideal person had the ideally proportioned mixture of the four; a predominance of one produced…
Read More