Humor

In medicine, humor refers to a fluid (or semifluid) substance. Thus, the aqueous humor is the fluid normally present in the front and rear chambers of the eye. The humors ran through an ancient theory that held that health came from balance between the bodily liquids. These liquids were termed humors. Disease arose when there was imbalance between these humors. The humors were: {{}}Phlegm (water) Blood Gall (black bile thought to be secreted by the kidneys and spleen) Choler (yellow bile secreted by the liver) This theory (which was variously called the humoral theory, humoralism, and humorism) was devised well before Hippocrates (c.460-c.375 BC). It was not definitively demolished until Rudolf Virchow published his formative book, Cellularpathologie, in 1858 that laid out the cellular basis of pathology. Present day pathology rests on a cellular and molecular foundation. The humors have been dispelled, except for the aqueous humor and vitreous humor of the eye.

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1. [NA] Any clear fluid or semifluid hyaline anatomic substance. 2. One of the elemental body fluids that were the basis of the physiologic and pathologic teachings of the hippocratic school : blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. SEE ALSO: humoral doctrine. [L. correctly, umor, liquid]

- aqueous h. [TA] the watery fluid that fills the anterior and posterior chambers of the eye. It is secreted by the ciliary processes within the posterior chambers and passes through the the pupil into the anterior chamber where it filters through the trabecular meshwork and is reabsorbed into the venous system at the iridocorneal angle by way of the sinus venosus of the sclera; SYN: h. aquosus [TA], intraocular fluid.

- h. aquosus [TA] SYN: aqueous h..

- Morgagni h. SYN: Morgagni liquor.

- ocular h. one of the two humors of the eye: aqueous and vitreous.

- peccant humors based on the historic humoral theory of disease, such humors or deranged fluids in the body were regarded as the direct causes of various illnesses.

- vitreous h. [TA] the fluid component of the vitreous body, with which it is often erroneausly equated. SYN: h. vitreus [TA].

- h. vitreus [TA] SYN: vitreous h..

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hu·mor or chiefly Brit hu·mour 'hyü-mər, 'yü- n

1 a) a normal functioning bodily semifluid or fluid (as the blood or lymph)

b) a secretion (as a hormone) that is an excitant of activity

2) in ancient and medieval physiology a fluid or juice of an animal or plant specif one of the four fluids that were believed to enter into the constitution of the body and to determine by their relative proportions a person's health and temperament see BLACK BILE, BLOOD (3), PHLEGM (1), YELLOW BILE

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hu·mor (huґmər) pl. humors, humoґres [L. “a liquid”] 1. a fluid or semifluid substance; used in anatomical nomenclature to designate certain fluid materials in the body. 2. one of the four hypothetical fluids of humoralism.