3 i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



He is quick to anger, but soon forgets wrong ; a word and a blow, 

 and oftentimes the blow first, are the features of his wrath. 



It is in medicine only tbat the temperaments have practical im- 

 portance, if we reject Dr. Powell's new science. Sanguine people 

 are prone to acute diseases of the inflammatory type. Apoplexy, dis- 

 eases of the heart and blood-vessels, haemorrhages, acute fevers, pneu- 

 monia, pleurisy, and closely-allied disorders, are the forms of dis- 

 ease generally met with. Dr. Southey assigns to this class the old 

 idea of crises; that is, in febrile diseases, at certain times, there will 

 be sudden losses of the fluids of the body spontaneously, by which 

 the diseased action secures a new outlet, and this is followed by a rapid 

 convalescence. These evacuations, if the temperament of the patient 

 be understood, are never interfered with by the physician, as they are 

 Nature's own efforts to throw off the disease. Rapid recovery, or a 

 speedy fatal result, may generally be looked for among sanguine peo- 

 ple. In this temperament the physical part of man r-eaches its most 

 perfect expression ; the body is here in even balance with the brain. 

 Such a combination as that of persistent intellectual effort with a 

 typical sanguine temperament is rare. Prof. John Wilson (Christo- 

 pher North) is an example of this, and of which there is scarce another 

 illustration in literature. This temperament, finding its purer expres- 

 sion in a near approach to human animalism, with soul and body 

 adjusted and evenly poised, a happy mingling of mind and matter, 

 must surely have been the type of the Miltonic man. The fancy can- 

 not paint him other than this, and believe him capable of contend- 

 ing with the dangers, obstacles, and unrelenting hardships, of his 

 life. Of this type have the sailors, colonists, soldiers, and explorers, 

 generally been all men who lead in the battle with Nature's ob- 

 stacdes. 



In the lymphatic temperament we have a direct antithesis of the 

 sanguine. Typically, the lymphatics are heavily framed, the limbs 

 are clumsy and large-jointed, awkward and slow in movement. This 

 is due to the thickness of the articular surfaces of the long bones, and 

 this also explains the lai-ge wrists and ankles ; the head is large, the 

 face unanimated, thick-lipped, pale, and with large features, the ex- 

 pression listless and apathetic ; the eyes are blue or gray, the hair 

 white, blond, or light auburn, and abundant. The male figure is be- 

 tween five feet eight inches and six feet two inches in height, the 

 female five feet six or nine inches high (Southey), and such are the 

 proportions that a person of this temperament rarely meets the artis- 

 tic ideal of human beauty. The texture of the flesh is soft and flab- 

 by, and generally abundant, the muscles small and slow in their 

 development. Puberty is late in its advent; this is but a charac- 

 teristic, however, of the slow and deliberate manner of the general 

 development. Functions are slowly performed and not evenly bal- 

 anced; the fluid secretions too abundant, the absorbents inactive 



