TEMPERAMENTS. 3 1 5 



temperaments are deemed trifling; and then again, on the contrary, 

 make most surprising recoveries. With them the will-power is often- 

 times an element in the recovery, throwing off disease by the deter- 

 mination not to yield to its influence. There is no doubt but that this 

 temperament is more liable to mental derangement than any other; 

 the great emotional intensity and the difficulty of moral control lay- 

 ing the mind open to causes that tend to produce insanity. Many of 

 the nervous constituents of this type belong to the bilious tempera- 

 ment. We have but to tone down the nervous excitability of the first 

 by an addition of the phlegm of the lymphatic, and add flesh to the 

 spare, nervous figure, and we have the bilious temperament. In its 

 typical phase, the subject is apt to be grave, taciturn, even morose; 

 mind and body move slowly but surely, not eccentrically, but by de- 

 termination and conviction. Persons of this temperament are re- 

 markable for inflexibility of will, sound judgment, strong convictions, 

 abiding affections, and great love for those dependent upon them. 



The study of the relations of temperaments to development and 

 vitality is one of great interest. While we know tolerably well their 

 reaction with disease, and the groups of diseases that are liable to 

 cluster round them, we have but few facts bearing upon the normal 

 relations of the temperaments to vital capacity. There are many diffi- 

 culties in the way of this study. In the first place, we have no unit 

 of measure or comparison, and, in the next, it is difficult to collect the 

 facts. In a very remarkable work consisting mainly of tabulations 

 of a vast number of data relating to anthropometry, or the measure- 

 ment of men, I discovered facts that throw considerable light upon 

 this subject. During the late war of the rebellion the provost-mar- 

 shal-general had to pass upon the fitness for military service of a vast 

 number of conscripts. The results of over a million examinations are 

 embodied in two massive quartos, by Dr. J. H. Baxter, late chief 

 medical officer of that bureau of the War Department. 1 From the 

 elaborate statistical table of Dr. Baxter, I am able to construct a few 

 tables that throw light upon some of the more obscure relations of 

 temperaments. The facts embodied in the tables are picked out here 

 and there from this mass of tabulation ; while the figures have suffered 

 no manipulation, except such as may be necessary to arrive at mean 

 values. 



A word as to the value of complexion as indicating temperament. 

 A light color of the hair and skin, and blue or gray eyes, instead of 

 indicating any one temperament, define broadly a group of two the 

 sanguine and lymphatic. A sallow or dark complexion, with black 

 eyes and hair, indicates the bilious and nervous, and in this country, 

 among natives, probably an excess of the latter. If, for the sake of 

 narrowing the dark-haired group, w T e adopt the more modern classifi- 



1 " Statistics, Medical and Anthropological, of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bu- 

 reau." By J. H. Baxter, A. M., M. D. Washington, D. C, 1875. Two vols., 4to. 



