r E M 



175 



T E M 



Phrenociix TVroia. (HorsfJ 



TEM\U'ivL T S. [TROCION-IIJ.E.] 

 TEMPK T;/JJTI;, called also Thessala or Thessalica or 

 Phthioticn Tempe) was the antient name of a beautiful 

 valley in Thessaly, lying between Mount Olympus on the 

 north and Mount Ossa on the south, near the mouth ol 

 the river Peneus, which runs through it. It is a narrow 

 glen, not quite five miles Ions, opening on the east into a 

 wide plain which extends to the Thermaic gulf. It forms 

 the only break in the great chain of mountains by which 

 Thessaly is enclosed on all sides. Antient tia 

 serted that tin- :;i (if The- it one time 



covered with v cl by 



the vale of Tempe, which was opened by a .stroke of Xcp- 

 tune's trident, other legend, by the 



strength of Hercules. The appearance of the country has 

 led modern tiavellers to accept the mythical story as 

 meaning that 1 1 is opened at some period by a 



great convul-ion of nature. The rocks which enclose it 

 n precipices from the bed of the I'eneus, and at the 

 narrowest point these pi eci piers approach so near each 

 other that the road is cut in the face of them. 



The Greeks reverenced Tempe as the. place fiom which 

 Apollo tra. to Delphi his sacred laurel, and ad- 



mired it a i their country. The 



most vivid description of : Ifi.\t., 



iii. I -'i Ovid, M c. ; Li\ius, 



xliv. G; Plin., Hint. .\nt.. k. . i., p. 



379; the Tours of Clarke, Holland. Dodwell, and Gel); 

 and Thirhvall's ///*/. uf (;,vm;>. i.. p. 5. 



TKMPKKAMKXT >,/,. K ,,r,m : . is a . 



and un^it. in, ljut Mill it is one which, as Dr. 



May / ';/' Hi'' lliiinnn Mi ml, London, 



I'Jui')., 1838, Append., p. 162), 'has for many centmi. s 

 been found a convenient generalization ; and, unless we 

 proposr tn sacrifice knowledge nt. the altar of logic, we 

 must still be contented to INC this or some other equally 

 indefinite term.' The word means literally " /<////;/'// i r , 

 '/n>r, and may be defined to lx> a peculiar 

 vm common to several individuals, which 

 : - from the various proportions in which the elemen- 

 tary part.-, of the human body are mixed HJ> tu^i'/ki'i-, and 

 which {fives rise to a 1cndc;ic\ to cerlaiu phenomena. 

 Then- is besides in each individual a further peculiarity of 

 combination, which serves to distinguish his temperament 

 from that of any other person, to whom however he may 

 in other respects bear a : nblance. This indi- 



vidual temperament is call .i/nmnty (i.e. u 



li'ir i/uxi/in; together'}, and, as the two words are some- 

 confounded, it may be useful to have pointed out 

 the distinction between them. All the different, s\ 

 of organs in the human frame are accurately adjusted 

 !i other, so as to produce one harmonious whole. 

 If the disproportion be too great, disease ensues; but 

 are many gradations, compatible with health, where 

 :is disproportion is very observable. Tin; prcdomi- 

 of any particular system of organs modifies the 

 whole economy, imprests striking differences on the re- 

 '_'>mi/a1ion, and lias ]ierhaps almost a, 

 an influence on the moral and intellectual as on the 

 physical 1.' This pn (luminance establishes the 



temperament : it is the cause of it, and constifut.-s its 

 e*ence. The antients paid considerable attention (o the 



*ubject of temperaments, and pointed out various pecu- 

 liarities in the constitution and actions of the human body, 

 which have been seen so far to coincide with general ob- 

 servation, that their nomenclature has continued in very 

 sreneral use even to the present clay, although the hypo- 

 thesis on which it was founded is universally discarded. 

 They described four temperaments corresponding to the 

 four qualities of Hippocrates hot, cold, moist, and dry. 

 It was supposed that there were four corresponding primary 

 components of the human body, namely, blood (!/*), 

 phlegm or pituita (^X^a), and the two kinds of bile (oi 

 Mo x<>X<n)> yellow bile (|av0>) %oXij), and black bile or atra- 

 bilis (piXaiva xoXjj) ; and the preponderance of one or 

 other of these components in different persons produced 

 the different temperaments. These four primary principles 

 of living bodies were supposed to be compounded of the 

 simple elements or qualities of nature thus : hot and moist 

 produce blood; cold and moist, phlegm or pituita; hot 

 and dry, yellow bile : and cold and dry, black bile. Bodies 

 in which blood superabounds are of the sanguine tempera- 

 ment ; if phlegm is in excess, the phlegmatic tempera- 

 ment is developed ; if yellow bile, the choleric ; and if 

 black bile, the melancholic or atrabilious temperament. 

 The following is the description of the different tempera- 

 ments given by Paulus Aegineta (l)e llt< Mtdii-ti, lib. i., 

 cap. (il ;,in Mr. Ad a m's Translation (London, 1834, 8vo.): 

 ' Those bodies which are of a hotter temperament than 

 the moderate will have their teeth earlier than usual, and 

 will Lrrow in like manner. They feel warmer to the touch, 

 and have less fat ; they are of a ruddy colour, and have 

 their hair black and moderately thick, and their veins are 

 larsre. But if such a one be al.o fat and brawny, and have 

 larsri- \cins. lie is fat from habit, and not from nature. 

 The following are the symptoms of a cold temperament : 

 such bodies appear cold to the touch, are without hair, and 

 are fat: their complexion, like their hair, being tawny. 

 But when the coldness is great, they are pale, leaden- 

 coloured, and have small veins; and if lean, this does not 

 proceed from nature, but habit. The dry is harder and 

 more slender than the temperate, the hardness indeed 

 being inseparable from the dry temperament ; but lean- 

 ness not only follows the connate temperaments, but also 

 those which are acquired by long habit. It is peculiar to 

 the humid temperament that the body is oppressed by 

 thinjf-i of a moist nature. The warm and dry temperament, 

 in other words, the rfmleric, is extremely shagsry, having 

 the hair of the ht ad in early age of rapid growth, black, 

 and thick; but in after-life baldness follows. The veins 

 are large, as are likewise the arteries, which beat, strongly. 

 The whole body is firm, well articulated, muscular, and 

 without obesity ; and the skin hard and dark. When the 

 temperament "is cold and humid, or jihl-^inntir, the chest 

 is narrow, and, like the rest of the body, without hairs; 

 the skin is soft and white, and its hairs somewhat tawny, 

 especially in youth ; and such pel-sons do not get bald 

 when they grow old : they are timid, spiritless, and inac- 

 tive; their \eins are invisible ; they are gross and fat; 

 their muscles and legs are feeble, and their joints ill- 

 formed ; and they are bandy-legged. But should the hu- 

 midity and coldness increase, the colour of their skin and 

 iiair becomes tawny, or, if they increase still more, pale. 

 The hot and humid, or sanguine, temperament is softer 

 and more fleshy than the proper, and. when it incn 

 much, is subject to putrid disorders ; but if it be only a 

 itfle more humid and much hotter than the moderate, 

 he bodies of such persons are only a little more soft and 

 leshy than the moderate, but they are much more hairy 

 and hotter to the touch. But if the cold and dry gTOfl 

 equally together, and form the melancholic, temperament, 

 such persons have naturally their bodies hard, slender, and 

 white, with fine muscles, small joints, and little hair; and 

 hey are cold to the touch. Although slender, fat is mixed 

 vith their flesh. The colour of their hair is correspondent 

 H the degree of constitutional coldness. As to disposition 

 if mind, they are spiritless, timid, and desponding. To 

 ay all in a word, with regard to the compound tempcra- 

 nents, they are always to be distinguished by the marks of 

 heprevailing quality.' 



The due admixture of these different qualities was snp- 



! to constitute the best form of temperament or con- 



tiiution (liiapaaiaj, of which the following is Paulus 



Veeineta'g description (Ibid., i. CO) : ' That man is in the 



>est temperament of body when it is in a medium between 



all extremes, of leanness and obesity, of softness and hard- 



