Book 1
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BLACK bile, if it make its appearance in acute diseases of the upper parts of the body, is very dangerous; or, if it pass downwards, it is not free from danger. But in chronic diseases, if it pass downward, it terminates in dysentery and pain of the liver. But in women it serves as a purgation instead of the menses, provided they are not otherwise in a dangerous condition. But if it be determined upwards to the stomach and diaphragm, it forms melancholy; for it produces flatulence and eructations of a fetid and fishy nature, and it sends rumbling wind downwards, and disturbs the understanding. On this account, in former days, these were called melancholics and flatulent persons. And yet, in certain of these cases, there is neither flatulence nor black bile, but mere anger and grief, and sad dejection of mind; and these were called melancholics, because the terms bile (χολὴ) and anger (ὀργὴ) are synonymous in import, and likewise black (μέλαινα), with much (πολλὴ) and furious (θηριώδης). Homer is authority for this when he says:—
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Then straight to speak uprose The Atreidan chief, who `neath his sway a wide-spread empire held: Sore vexed was he; his mighty heart in his dark bosom swelled With rage, and from his eyes the fire like lightning-flashes broke. —Τοῖσι δ᾿ ἀνέστη Ἥρως Ἀτρείδης εὐρυκρείων Ἀγαμέμνων Ἀχνύμενος· μένεος δὲ μέγα φρένες ἀμφιμελαιναι Πίμπλαντ᾿, ὄσσε δέ οἱ πυρὶ λαμπετόωντι ἐΐκτην. Iliad, i. 101, etc.
