550 



PHYSIOGNOMY PHYSIOLOGY. 



came into office. Their autnority again sunk ; but, 

 in the revolution, they had, for several years, a de- 

 rided preponderance in the convention. Joseph II. 

 of Austria, and Leopold of Tuscany, his brother, 

 were friendly to the system, but did not allow the 

 perfect freedom of trade which it recommended. 

 The principles of the physiocratic system are, 1. 

 The earth is the only source of all national wealth ; 

 and only those who use or increase the natural 

 powers operating in the vegetable and animal king- 

 dom, as farmers, fishermen, herdsmen, miners, add 

 to the amount of actual wealth. All other labourers, 

 mechanics, manufacturers, merchants, produce no- 

 thing which can increase the public wealth ; they 

 only change the form of the articles produced by the 

 former classes, and their wages will always be paid 

 by the surplus of raw products, which the farmer 

 saves from his own consumption. The merchant 

 only promotes the exchange of goods. Still less is 

 it in the power of public officers and men in similar 

 employments to increase the elements of wealth. 2. 

 A 11 members of the community, therefore, are divided 

 into productive and unproductive. To the latter 

 class belong scholars, artists, mechanics, merchants, 

 &c., because all of them are to be supported by the 

 productions of the earth, without having assisted 

 directly in producing them. What they save from 

 the wages received from the mass of the natural pro- 

 ducts, in various forms, contributes, indeed, to na- 

 tional wealth, and they become, thereby, a useful 

 class of citizens, indirectly increasing wealth. It is 

 only by their means, moreover, that the agriculturist 

 is enabled to devote himself exclusively to the cul- 

 ture of the earth. 3. From this it follows that the 

 unrestricted exercise of all honest occupations is ne- 

 cessary to the wealth of both classes. The system 

 inculcates freedom hi regard to foreign commerce, 

 as well as to the mechanic arts, considering it a 

 matter of indifference whether the products of a 

 country are consumed by natives or by foreigners. 

 4. As, according to this system, all wealth is deriv- 

 ed from the soil, the only subject taxed should be 

 the net produce of the soil. The untenableness of 

 this system, without replying to it in detail, rests 

 chiefly in the misconception of nature and its pro- 

 ducts. The fire of the steam-engine is as much a 

 productive natural power as that producing grain, 

 and the plough as much a machine as the steam- 

 engine. 



PHYSIOGNOMY (from QMS, nature, and ve^o;, 

 law, rule) is the name given to the countenance of 

 man, considered as an index of his general charac- 

 ter, and also to the science which treats of the means 

 of judging of character from the countenance. This 

 is the general acceptation of the term ; but there 

 seems no very good reason why the science of phy- 

 siognomy should not be considered as extending to a 

 man's whole appearance. Whatever be thought of 

 the possibility of laying down strict rules for such 

 judgments, it is a fact of every day's occurrence, 

 that we are, almost without reflection on our part, 

 impressed favourably or unfavourably, in regard to 

 the temper and talents of others, by the expression 

 of their countenances. As the face is that part of 

 animals in which the noblest organs are united, by 

 which they put themselves in contact with the world, 

 and, for various reasons, shows most of their charac- 

 teristic traits, it has been made the particular object 

 of study by the physiognomist; and comparisons 

 have been drawn between the face of man and that 

 of animals. Bapt. della Porta (who died in 1615) 

 made such comparisons the basis of his physiogno- 

 mical investigations, and had the heads of animals 

 compared to human faces represented. Tischbein, 

 a German painter, has since carried out the same 



idea much more completely, and doctor Gall ha? also 

 made such comparative representations for the illus- 

 tration of phrenology. A great part of the art of 

 painting and sculpture is founded on physiognomy. 

 As the expression of the face depends very much 

 upon the formation of the fore part of the skull, phy- 

 siognomy is illustrated by craniology.* Among the 

 chief points in physiognomy, Kant, in his anthropo- 

 logy, reckons, 1. the general information of the face, 

 particularly in the profile, vhich is interesting, both 

 in respect to the physiognomy of individuals and of 

 nations, as Blumenbach's investigations prove ; 2. 

 the features of the face ; 3. the motions of the face, 

 as far as they have become habitual; also the walk, 

 &c. Kant and others think they can show why phy- 

 siognomy can never be elevated to a science. It is, 

 however, a subject of great interest, but the student 

 must be on his guard against a general application 

 of the rules which experience seems to have furnish- 

 ed him. This was the reason why Lavater's system 

 lasted but a short time, though he has collected 

 valuable materials. (See Lavatcr.) The Dominican 

 Campanella, who died in 1639, was a physiognomist. 

 J. Cross published, in 1817, an Attempt to establish 

 Physiognomy upon scientific Principles (Glasgow, 

 1817); and Spurzheim, the Physiognomical System. 

 See Face. 



PHYSIOGRAPHY. See Mineralogy. 



PHYSIOLOGY (from <putns, nature, in every sense, 

 and A.yf, science). This word, first used, as it ap- 

 pears, by Aristotle, would signify, according to its 

 etymology, the science which treats of all the phe- 

 nomena of nature, the whole universe, and thus 

 would comprise natural philosophy as well as na- 

 tural history ; but the term has been subjected to 

 some restrictions, and is used, sometimes, for the 

 science which treats of all the phenomena of living 

 bodies, and thus becomes synonymous with biology ; 

 sometimes for the science which treats of animal 

 life, and then is synonymous with zoonomy or dynamo- 

 logy ; and sometimes for the science which treats of 

 the phenomena of life in man, and then it corres- 

 ponds to one of the significations of anthropology. 

 The most scientific use of the word is that which ap- 

 plies it to the phenomena of life in general, as all the 

 phenomena of life, animal or vegetable, are intimately 

 connected with each other. The science would then 

 include vegetable physiology, animal physiology, 

 and comparative physiology, which corresponds to 

 comparative anatomy, and examines the analogies 

 and differences presented by the organic activity of 

 the two classes of beings. Physiology has been 

 further divided into general and special, the former 

 analyzing the phenomena of life in an abstract man- 

 ner, without making the application to particular 

 species, whilst the latter examines the mechanism 

 and the results of life in certain species. Physi- 

 ology, finally, has been treated under the subdivi- 

 sions of hygienic, pathologic and therapeutic, physi- 

 ology. As long as these divisions serve simply to 

 assist the student, without conveying wrong ideas 

 as to the science and the subject whch it treats, viz. 

 life, so various in its manifestations, yet one and the 

 same throughout all nature, they may be useful. 



* Physiognomy and phrenology, in a certain degree, always 

 have existed and will exist. Though our rules for Judging of 

 men from their appearance may often fail, we still continue to 

 trust in them. We cannot help considering it strange if a 

 sulky-looking man is found to be kind, and a stupid-looking 

 man to be sagacious. We find in the autobiographical letters 

 of the philolotfer. Jerome Wolf (who died 1580), a curious story, 

 that the physician attending his father on his death-bed, looking 

 at the forehead of young Jerome for some lime, consoled his 

 father by the assurance that his son would be, at some future 

 time, a capable man, though he might then appear awkward 

 and dull. H. Wolfii de f'itee sure Ration*, &c.. communicated 

 in Raumer's Historisc/tet Taichenbuch. 



