[Sca-cooks] weather fronts and the humors

[Stefan li Rous]

Maire asked:
> Obligatory Food-ish Question: I'm assuming that middle-ages me, if
> educated in these things, would have seen my physical reactions to 
> storm
> fronts/weather changes as an imbalance in my humors? Would it have been
> seen as too much of the moist/cold? Not enough? Anyone care to expound
> on what sort of foods or herbs would have been recommended? Modern-me
> does Pretty Good with her NSAIDS, but wonders how similar things were
> handled in the 14th century....

Interesting question. But would they have tried to put a humorial 
aspect on this at all? I thought the theory of the humors was balance 
within the individual. Just as you can see the storm fronts come 
through and relate various effects to them, wouldn't they? I would more 
believe them commenting that folks with certain humorial balances were 
more (or less) effected by the weather, rather than that the weather 
affected someone's humorial balance. But most of my knowledge of 
humorial theory comes from discussions in this group.

Since it was an agricultural society, I might also expect them to be 
even more attuned to the weather than we tend to be. Without barometers 
or probably even the idea of atmospheric pressure, it is interesting to 
wonder just what their concepts of weather were.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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