As discussed in one of the primary believed causes of melancholy, an excess of a certain humour, the black bile, can cause an individual to go mad. One of the main approaches at neutralizing the blood and relieving it of its excess black bile was by a process known as bloodletting. In this process, a doctor would first begin by cutting a main vein in a patients arm, and allowing it to bleed (Burton, 3.2). If the blood ran clean and red, then the doctor would stop the bleeding, and rule out the possibility of a humoural imbalance. However, if the blood appeared black or thick in nature, the doctor would let it bleed. Then, ten to twelve days later, the patient would revisit the doctor, who would again bleed the patient, but this time through a vein in the forehead, or by provoking a nose bleed (Burton). The theory behind this method was that it would eliminate any of the excess black bile that was causing the patients madness, and the patient would be cured.
Another method that a doctor would use in the Elizabethan Era in order to treat madness by humoural imbalance was by a process known as leeching. A doctor would attach several leeches to a patients head, which would go about sucking about 4 times its body weight in blood (Haycock). Much like in bloodletting, it was believed that by relieving the body of some of its blood, the leeches were also expelling the harmful surplus of the black bile. The leeches would also secrete a chemical called hirudin, would would prevent the clotting of the blood, which was also believed to be essential in assuring resistance to disease (Haycock).
The last method that was used to cure a humoural imbalance was an adjustment to a patients diet. As noted in the "Causes" tab, black bile was seen as a cold, and dry humour. Doctors would counteract this by telling their patients to eat warm, moist foods like soup during their metal illness, in hopes of a full recovery (Forp).