from Part 1 - Causes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2021
In 1549, the celebrated Paduan physician Giambattista da Monte treated the Earl of Montfort for a case of hypochondriacal melancholy. Nowadays, the term ‘hypochondria’ refers to an excessive anxiety that one has a serious medical condition. But in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it had a different meaning: hypochondriacal melancholy was of a specific type that was located in the hypochondriac region, the middle region of the body just below the midriff, where the liver, spleen, and gallbladder reside. In Renaissance physiology, these organs comprise the central system both for producing the humours and for refining them from the nutrition that the body takes in. In the Earl of Montfort’s case, his belly was too cold while his liver was too hot. He was suffering from pustules and ulcers. He had indigestion and bad wind. And he was experiencing the gloom and sadness which are the typical accompaniments of melancholic disease.
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