142 Aristotle and his school
movement which does not stop until the object of recollection is found.
The disorder manifests itself particularly in people whose region of sensory
perception is surrounded by moisture, ‘for once moisture is set in motion,
it does not readily stop moving until the sought object is found and the
movement has taken a straight course’.
Melancholics are mentioned here in the context of a discussion of the
bodily (physiological) aspect of recollection. Their characteristic feature is
their disorder^14 in the process of recollection, in that they are unable to con-
trol this process. As causes for the disorder Aristotle first mentions the special
movement by images (phantasmata) and secondly moisture (hugrotes ̄) lo-
cated around theaisthetikos topos ̄ , the heart. Although it remains uncertain
whether this sentence refers to melancholics, the structure of the argument
seems to indicate that this moisture is the physiological cause of the previ-
ously mentioned special affection by images.^15 In the case of melancholics
this moisture clearly is black bile;^16 thus it appears that they are charac-
terised by a quantity of black bile around the heart, or at least they are
prone to being affected by this.^17
In the third chapter of his workOn Sleep and Waking(Somn. vig.),
Aristotle describes groups of people who are more prone to sleep and people
who are less so. In 457 a 25 he discusses people with prominent blood vessels
who, as a result of this width of their vessels (poroi), are not much given
to sleep. Aristotle subsequently^18 states that melancholics are not prone
to sleep (hupnotikoi ̄ ) either, for their inner parts are chilled, which results
in limited ‘evaporation’ of food (according to Aristotle, this ‘evaporation’,
anathumiasis, is the cause of sleep). This is also the reason why melancholics
are on the one hand good eaters, yet on the other hand they are spare; their
(^14) OnKL seeOn Divination in Sleep(De divinatione per somnum, Div. somn.) 464 a 26.
(^15) This is shown by the fact that the analogy argument in lines 20 – 2 is not finished until the general
" #! # -)in the next sentence has been applied to the exceptional cases:
thus the later
in line 23 anaphorically picks up the earlier
R
->
(^16) SeePart. an. 72 b 29 , where a ‘hot and residual moisture’KH% %
)
Lis
mentioned, which is situated around the diaphragm and confuses the mind and sense perception. It is
likely that this refers to black bile (cf.Pr. 954 a 34 – 8 ; see below). With regard to the complication that
in Greek medicine melancholics were usually associated with dryness, I endorse Sorabji’s solution
( 1972 a, 113 ): black bile is of course a liquid (cf.Part. an. 647 b 11 – 13 ;Hist. an. 487 a 2 – 4 ), but it is dry
compared to other liquids. In this passage melancholics are not characterised by the fact that they
are particularly moist but by the fact that there is moisture around their heart (as is occasionally the
case with other people), namely black bile.
(^17) For similarities with Diocles’ theory see Sorabji ( 1972 ) 113 and Flashar ( 1966 ) 50 – 9.
(^18) SeePr. 954 a 7 , where melancholics are said to have protruding veinsK / < D
L.For
the tendency in this chapter of theProblematato take certain features, which Aristotle occasionally
mentions in relation to melancholy, as part of a more fundamental basis of the melancholic nature,
see n. 39 below.