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2.3.2. Defining the Empirical Understanding in Contemporary
Western Herbal Medicine
To the Heart of the Matter
Analysing the historical information regards the empirical WHM approach to disease and treatment,
it becomes apparent that there exists two main descriptive styles, which are historically defined by
the emergence of reductionism.
WHM originally developed out of pre-reductionist vitalistic medicine, which had its origin in the
time of the Romeo-Grecian Empire, and was fundamentally an empirically based system (Holmes
1997). Western medical texts from the pre-reductionist era were written in the language of Humoral
Medicine, originally expounded by Hippocrates and Galen 12 , and later by the English Physician;
Nicholas Culpeper. Within Humoral Medicine disease is understood in terms of imbalances, and
treatment is aimed at addressing the expressions of the vital energy, by correcting imbalances at the
physical, constitutional and temperamental levels (Chishti 1988) .
Humoral teaching could be described as forming the foundations upon which WHM was built.
Following the influence of the lineage of Humoral Medicine from 300 B.C.E. Holmes (1997, p. 38)
writes: “The analytic tradition is rooted in the rationalistic Hippocratic medicine that sprang from
Kos. It was enriched and consolidated by Galen of Pergamon in Rome in a form that lasted to the
threshold of the nineteenth century”.
In the modern era, the most influential of the post-reductionist vitalistic styles of WHM has been
the practice of Physiomedicalism (Brown 1991). Developed in North America during the 19 th
century C.E. and instituted by the teachings of Samuel Thomson, Physiomedicalism exerted its
influence on herbalism in the United Kingdom under the inspiration of Albert Coffin 13 , an estranged
student of Samuel Thomson (Griggs 1997). The therapeutic tenet of Physiomedicalism is based on
the understanding that health and disease are expressions of the vital force, and that physical health,
being archetypal, is expressed in the individual, as a function of temperament and organ inferiority
(Priest & Priest 1983).
The Physiomedicalist approach reflects strongly some of the concepts found in Humoral Medicine,
suggesting that humoral understanding either has survived, or has been re-discovered by
Physiomedicalist practice.
12 Claudius Galen. Greek physician (129-200 C.E.).
13 Albert Isiah Coffin, Anglo-American Physician (1790-1866 C.E.).
15