152 Aristotle and his school
The remark about the strong desires of melancholics, with their resulting
lack of discipline, is confirmed by the results so far.^49 Some final points of
interest are Aristotle’s remark about youth and the influence of physical
growth on the human character (ethos ̄ ), as well as the comparison with
drunks.^50 Aristotle uses youth and old age as typical examples to elucidate
the close connection between mental and physical states (Rh. 2. 12 – 13 ,in
particular 1389 a 18 – 19 and b 29 – 32 ); and the use of these examples as an
analogy for the ‘character-affecting’ influence (toethopoion ̄ ) of the melan-
cholic mixture will return inPr. 30. 1 ( 954 b 8 – 11 ).
4 black bile in physiology
We have seen that Aristotle credits the melancholics with several psycho-
physical and moral deviations or weaknesses, sometimes adding brief refer-
ences to their physiological causes. Further details about this physiological
basis can be found in the only passage entirely devoted to bile (chole ̄), in
Part. an. 4. 2. The chapter begins by listing animals which have bile and
animals which do not.^51 Aristotle remarkably claims that not all people
possess bile ( 676 b 31 – 2 ) and that, contrary to popular belief, bile is not
the cause of acute diseases. So why does bile exist? According to Aristotle,
bile is a residue (perittoma ̄ ) without purpose (( 4
), and
although nature sometimes makes good use of residues, this does not imply
that we should expect everything to have a purpose. After all, there are many
things that are necessarily by-products of things that do serve a purpose,
but are themselves without purpose. On bile as aperittoma ̄ Aristotle says
a few lines further on ( 677 a 25 ): ‘when the blood is not entirely pure,
bile will be generated as a residue, for residue is the opposite of food’.
Bile appears to be a ‘purifying secretion’ (apokatharma), which is con-
firmed by the saying in antiquity that people live longer if they do not have
bile.
(^49) The complication that in the discussion of lack of self-control melancholics were considered to be
lacking in self-control, whereas the relevant passages (Eth. Nic. 1150 a 16 ff.; 1150 b 29 ff.) differentiate
betweenakrasiaandakolasiacan be resolved by assuming that the difference is probably irrelevant
in the other context.
(^50) ‘Likewise in youth, because of the process of growth, people are in a state similar to drunk, and
youth is pleasant’K ) ’ . C !#
1 % &D#
? /
)
0
8R 8 !#L(Eth. Nic. 1154 b 10 – 12 ).
(^51) The question is whether J. Ogle ( 1910 ) is correct in translatingchole ̄as ‘gall bladder’ and whether it
should not be understood as ‘bile’ until later. The Greek text does not differentiate between the two.
InPart. an. 676 b 11 – 13 Aristotle does differentiate between bile situated near the liver and bile that
is situated in the other parts of the body (cf. 677 b 9 – 10 ), but it is possible that the former refers to
the liquid in the gall bladder. [Cf. Lennox ( 2001 ) 288 .]