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Herbal Medicine
by Douglas Adams
As long ago as 3000 B.C. the ancient Egyptians compiled lists of herbs and their properties. Later, the ancient Greeks followed suit. It was the Romans who brought herbs to northern Europe, and there herbalism was nurtured and molded by other cultural influences, including the Arabs, who invaded the Iberian Peninsula.
In the Middle Ages, herbal lore was often created around superstition, but underlying this was a basic comprehension of the body and the effects that different herbs had upon it. When the reasons why herbs worked on a medical basis were unclear, a philosophy or didactic myth would be woven to explain them. It was believed that people tended to embody one of four dispositions associated with bodily humors, being either cheerful, sluggish, hot tempered, or gloomy, depending on which of the humors predominated. Herbs were thought to possess their own characteristic temperaments, and were therefore prescribed according to their individual characteristics to correct imbalances.
Douglas Adams is the owner of All Wellbeing.com , a website dedicated to increasing knowledge of health related issues.
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