- Humoral
- Pertaining to elements in the blood or other body fluids. 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 were part of an ancient theory that held that health came from balance between the bodily liquids. These liquids were termed humors. Disease arose when imbalance occurred between the 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. Today 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) of, relating to, proceeding from, or involving a bodily humor (as a hormone) <\humoral control of sugar metabolism>2) relating to or being the part of immunity or the immune response that involves antibodies secreted by B cells and circulating in bodily fluids <\humoral immunity> <\humoral immune response> <\humoral system of immunity> compare CELL-MEDIATED* * *
adj.circulating in the bloodstream; humoral immunity requires circulating antibodies.* * *
hu·mor·al (huґmər-əl) 1. pertaining to elements dissolved in the blood or body fluids, e.g., humoral immunity from antibodies in the blood as opposed to cellular immunity. 2. pertaining to one of the humors of the body or to humoralism.
Medical dictionary. 2011.
