TEE STUDY OF CHARACTER 597 



suits from finding others in the wrong, Cardan promptly found that the 

 Archbishop's brain was too hot and too dry. He put his distinguished 

 patient on a cold and humid diet to resist the attraction of the brain, 

 yet had him sleep on a pillow of dry straw or sea-weed, and had water 

 dropped upon his shaven crown; in addition, however, he prescribed 

 a regimen of simple food, much sleep and cold showers. The im- 

 provement that resulted — naturally ascribed to the "humoraP' pro- 

 cedures, — added much to the glory of Cardan's reputation and the 

 profit of his purse. Tliis physician, learned and wise for his day, was 

 yet the very embodiment of all things superstitious. Every trivial 

 occurrence was an omen or potent. He cast horoscopes, wrote on all 

 manners of cosmic influences, and espoused the role of a physiognomist. 

 His distinctive contribution was an astrological physiognomy, based 

 upon the underlying notion that the furrows or lines of the forehead 

 correspond to the seven dominant celestial bodies; and that the quali- 

 ties which they denoted were those connected with the powers and 

 virtues conferred by Venus, or Jupiter, or Saturn, or Mercury, etc., 

 in the current astrological system. Across the forehead he drew seven 

 parallel lines, the spaces in succession dedicated to the moon and the 

 six planets, and by the proportions .and prominences of these lines he 

 read the fortune of the subject, not hesitating in one case to predict 

 from the grouping of these wrinkles that the owner thereof was doomed 

 to die by hanging or drowning. 



In such manner the humoral doctrine served to determine the 

 diagnosis of disposition and ailment, while from astrology and physi- 

 ognomy were drawn further indications of personal character and 

 probable fortune. Hardly less significant for the logical temper of 

 these pre-Harveian days were the contributions of Giovanni Baptista 

 della Porta (1538-1615). He was impressed by the comparative 

 physiognomy sketched in the Aristotelian writings — a field in turn 

 indicating the strong impression that the traits of animals make upon 

 the thought-habits of primitive people; it appears in totemic practises, 

 as well as in animal fables from ^sop to Br'er Rabbit. The notion 

 that stubborn persons will carry the outward sign of their obstinacy by 

 having features in common with the face of a mule, or that foolish ones 

 will show a like resemblance to a sheep, impresses the modem reader 

 as a strange joke. The analogy will barely support a pleasantry or a 

 metaphor. We are fully conscious of the metaphor of our epithets, when 

 we call an obstinate person mulish, or a shy one sheepish, or a man of sly 

 ways an old fox, or speak of a social lion or a wise owl or a gay 

 butterfiy; it is significant that what was once serious logic is now 

 playful figure of speech. It is also in accord with the principle of 

 survivals in culture that the notions made current by generations of 

 credulous "physiognomists" continue to be circulated in the popular 



