INHERITANCE OF TEMPERAMENT. 73 



It will be convenient for us to distinguish two grades of the hyper- 

 kinetic temperament, a lesser and a greater, and we may apply to them 

 the two terms which were used in the older psychology but seem to be, 

 at the present time, almost abandoned. The less of these grades is 

 called nervous (sometimes sanguine), the more developed grade is called 

 choleric. To give again and in summary some more or less precise 

 notion of the content of these terms as used in this paper, I may say 

 that the nervous person is active, energetic, irritable, excitable, ambi- 

 tious, given to planning, optimistic, usually talkative, and jolly. The 

 choleric person is over-active, starts on new lines of work before complet- 

 ing the old, brags, is usually hilarious, hypererotic, often profane, liable 

 to violent fits of anger, brutal, destructive, assaultive, and even homicidal. 



2. THE HYPOKINETIC (DEPRESSED) STATE. 



This is an emotional state in which the elements of behavior are on 

 the whole the opposite of those shown in the hyperkinetic state. This 

 state is characterized by psycho-motor retardation ; all movements are 

 slow and made with difficulty. The hypokinetic individual seems 

 unable to initiate movements, or does so with difficulty. Thought and 

 action are retarded ; the emotions (in contrast with those of the hyper- 

 kinetic) are unbroken and stable, but relief is often in tears. Anxious- 

 ness, brooding, worry over trifles, fear of organic disease and of impend- 

 ing death, and other painful mental states are present. A sense of 

 self -insufficiency and unworthiness and deep sinfulness often develops, 

 with or without hallucinations. There is usually a high blood-pressure. 

 If the hyperkinetic seem to lack inhibitions so that the mental machine 

 runs wild, the hypokinetics are over-inhibited. The brakes are on too 

 hard, and the emotional machine can hardly work at all. This state, 

 like the hyperkinetic, is frequently (usually in young persons) a transi- 

 tory one; and in the course of days or months the normal mood is 

 restored. 



As with the hyperkinetic, so with the hypokinetic, two states, bor- 

 rowed from the old psychology, may be recognized. The phlegmatic 

 temperament is characterized by quietness, seriousness, conservative- 

 ness, pessimism. The person of melancholic temperament is unrespon- 

 sive (often mute), lachrymose, given to worry, weak and incapable, 

 feels life a burden, often longs for death as a relief. 



3. THE ALTERNATION OF HYPERKINESIS AND HYPOKINESIS. 



It is common to find persons whose mood varies greatly, from grave 

 to gay. At one time they will be very active and sociable, jolly and 

 self-confident; at another they will be plunged into the slough of 

 despond and feel quite incapable of doing anything. Examples of this 

 type are found among men of genius as well as among others. For 

 example, the first biography I pick up is a life of Harriet Beecher 

 Stowe (Fields, 1898). At the age of 1 6 years she wrote her sister: "I 



