Posted by Joel on June 28, 2005 at 12:46:12 from 68.227.184.253 user joels.
In Reply to: Re: The Hullabaloos' livers posted by Andrew Jones on June 26, 2005 at 17:03:47:
I will second the opinion that the good Doctor's reference to their livers is a reference to the humours in the blood (regulated by the liver) which were (by the Coot's time, alegorically) thought to determine people's moods. This survives in our language in such phrases as "being in ill humor" or being in good humor. One's mood being determined by one's humours. Thus, the Hullabaloos will have forgotten about it unless their natures are being influenced by an abnormally peevish frame of mind ... an ill humour ... (due from the medieval physician's point of view by the functioning of their livers creating an excess of bile and other ill humours and putting them in a really bad mood.)