Let’s Preserve, Promote Ancient Knowledge and Wisdom        

Unani medicine (Greek medical system) is one of the ancient systems which has originated in Greece around 2500 years back. It later spread to many parts of the world such as Rome, Persia , Syria, Mesopotamia and beyond. In these countries it got further promoted and nourished by physicians and scholars, notably Galen (Jalinous), Farabi, Ibn Betar, Ibn Arabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Avorres), Ibn  Nafis and so many others. It was practiced by physicians of different religions, Jews, Christians and later on Muslim physicians particularly in Persia , Central Asia , Iraq and several Arab lands. The three basic components upon which the Greek medical science (Unani) is based are: 

Elements (Arkan) ii. Humours (Akhtat ) and (iii) Temperament (Mizaj).
The Greek materialist philosopher Empedocles who lived in 490-430 BC reduced all the multiformity of things into four elements Earth, Water Air and Fire, each having special quality in it. Earth being cold and dry; Water cold and moist, Fire hot and dry and Air hot and moist.
According to ancient Greek Science human body is composed of four humours, i. Phlegm (Balgam) ii Sanguis (Blood), Chole (Yellow bile ) or Safra, Malanchole (Black bile ) Sauda ). They correspond to elements and their four primary qualities, the function of these four humorus is to provide nourishment  to the body and body organs.                               

Temperament is a Latin word which means mixing in due  proportion. According to Greek Science , when the elements mix with one another qualitatively and quantitatively there emerges a  uniform body possessing the resultant of these qualities. This resultant quality is called its temperament (Mizaj).

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Hippocrates ,the Greek physician , philosopher and naturalist who lived in 460-377 BC popularly known in medical history as father of medicine, has divided man into four types of temperaments which were named after Latin and Greek terms.
 

i. Sanguine   (Dami mizaj) due to predominance of blood  
ii. Phlegmatic (Balgami mizaj) due to predominance of phlegm, iii,   Choleric (Safravi mizaj ) due to predominance of bile,   iv. Melancholic (Saudavi mizaj) due to predominance of (black bile )    (sauda ) which is a sediment of blood in the spleen.

Temperament manifests itself in general makeup of the personality. A person of having  particular temperament may be clever or stupid, honest or dis- honest , kind or malicious , talented or ungifted. So temperament is the most general characterization of each individual person, the most general characterization of his nervous system which leaves a certain imprint on all the activities of each individual.

Avicenna (Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina- 980-1037 AD)  a famous Persian physician philosopher and mathematician, born near Bukhara has made immense contributions in the field of medicine. He has written an encyclopedia of medicine known as Alcanoon or canon in five volumes. It attained great fame in the medical world and has been translated into many languages. This book of medicine was taught in medieval European universities for a long time till modern medical science overtook it. Avicenna also upholds that health and disease depends upon the equilibrium or disequilibrium of the four humours in the body.
If the blood dominates , the person feels sleepy, may have migraine, thinking power is disturbed , blood vessels are turgid and has sugar flavour in mouth. If yellow bile is dominant, the body has a yellow tinge, appetite weak and mouth bitter with restlessness and with dry mouth and tongue. If black bile dominates, the body is warm , appetite reduced and there is acid flavor in the mouth. The patient sees frightful dreams. If phlegm dominates the head is heavy sleep prolonged, little appetite and thirst, swollen face, urine dense and strange in smell and pulse is low. 

Temperament in the light of modern science

The Russian neurologist  I.P Pavlov popularly known as father of Neurology has done lat of work on nervous system on the basis of their process of excitation and inhibition.  He divided the activity of nervous system into lower and higher activity. Lower nervous activity  is inborn while as the higher nervous activity is acquired during the life time. Thus there are two types of reflexes viz un unconditioned reflex or inborn and conditioned reflex or acquired and showed that instincts are complex unconditioned reflexes.

As a result of numerous observations and studies on dogs, Pavlov established four types of nervous system corresponding to four human temperaments such as:-   

Strong unbalanced  ii. Strong, balanced and mobile  iii. Strong, balanced and slow   iv. Weak with both cortical processes excitatory and inhibitory enfeebled. 

Strong unbalanced type is characterized as ‘choleric’. Strong, balanced and mobile is characterized as ‘sanguine’. This type is uncommonly ardent, energetic and highly productive. Strong , balanced and inert nervous system are categorized as phlegmatic.

They are usually sedate, reserved ,composed, even tempered productive and persistent. Weak type of nervous system is characterized as melancholic due to weakness of both cortical processes. Representatives of this type are usually even tempered and productively efficient only under conditions corresponding to their potentialities.   To make it easily understandable a sketch is drawn correlating Hippocrates classification on the basis of four types of nervous system as explained above.

Correlations   

Temperament even makes character of a person even though it is mauled in his activity along the course he pursues in his life. Even though , when the science has made un-imaginable advancement in the field of medicine all over the world and eradicated many communicable as well as other infectious diseases, which otherwise would claim lives of millions of people. Still the basic principles, propounded by the Greek physician philosopher Hippocrates and latter by galaxy of physicians in the medieval period, can not entirely brushed aside. An integrated and comprehensive approach to combat the disease world over is need of the time. So we must preserve and promote the heritage of ancient knowledge and wisdom.                     

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