Did you know there was a time when infectious diseases like the common cold could kill you and your family? This was probably the last time disease became the “reaper” before the advances of modern medicine in the Elizabethan era. With infectious diseases spreading and killing so many people, doctors became desperate. Because these doctors knew very little about medicine, they were quite willing to try experimental treatments on their patients (Alchin). Unfortunately, almost everyone with an infectious disease has died. All the knowledge of these doctors was based on: moods, brain functions controlled by each internal organ and how to protect yourself from them. Moreover, the basic knowledge that all these doctors knew was: there are only four elements in the world, each element represents a mood, and the four humors are balanced in the human body. Humors are “natural bodily fluids.” They correspond to the elements and have various qualities: cold, dry, hot and humid. (Ross) The four elements are: earth, air, water and fire. The humor of the earth was black bile, meaning melancholy or sad - black bile is actually the foam that springs from the blood. Air's humor is blood, meaning sanguine or vigorous. Water humor can disgust people...it's phlegm, meaning phlegmatic or slow. Finally, the humor of fire is yellow bile, which means capricious or choleric - yellow bile is also choleric (Ross). The four humors are believed to be balanced and the cause of illness if any of them were unbalanced (Alchin). As previously stated, doctors of this era believed that a person would become ill if any of the humors were out of balance. To restore balance, doctors bled patients. Bleeding was not done with leeches but with a bowl and a prick needle ...... middle of paper ...... coffin. The rich provided the black clothes for their guest (McKenzie). This was to prevent a guest from being offended by their clothing choices. To conclude, the medicine of that time was so sad that death was inevitable. They couldn't blame doctors, or even themselves, for the cause of all these illnesses, because they didn't really know what to do. Doctors experimented and took lives, but did not learn from their ineffective practices like bleeding or leeching. Religion was probably the best possible choice at that time. Works Cited Ross, Maggi “Science and Health” Elizabethan.org/. Np, March 26, 2008 Web January 17, 2014Alchin, Linda. “Elizabethan Medicine and Diseases” www.elizabethan-era.org. UNITED KINGDOM. NP May 16, 2012 Web. January 17, 2014McKenzie, Eleanor. “Funeral Rites and Customs in Elizabethan England” Classroom.synonym.com/ Demand Media Web January 20 2014