Elements for a Huysmansian “hygrology” Naturalistic codes and mystical phenomenology

The specialized dictionaries of the late nineteenth century make it possible to situate Huysmans’ rich lexical field of the humors in a medical context, and to question the resurgences and gaps between this conception of the body and Hippocratic or modern humorism. The author’s return to Catholicism redirects these humoral references towards mysticism. The dysregulation of the humors becomes a divine symbol, and monastic bleeding establishes the idea of a hygiene of the soul and body.