Passions and Tempers may excite passions and tempers in some of its readers as a good work of intellectual history should. You will learn a lot from its pages. --Washington Post The humours--blood phlegm black bile and choler--were substances thought to circulate within the body and determine a person's health mood and character. The theory of humours remained an inexact but powerful tool for centuries surviving scientific changes and offering clarity to physicians. This one-of-a-kind book foll