36 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 



77. From the endless variety and modification of the 

 conditions belonging to these four principles, it may be 

 easily understood what great latitude* must be given 

 to the notion of health. For since, as Celsus long ago 

 observed, every one has some part weaker than the rest, 

 Galen may in this sense assert with truth, that no one 

 enjoys perfect health. And even among those whom 

 we commonly regard as in good health, this is variously 

 modified in each individual, f 



78. Upon this endless modification is founded the 

 difference % of temperaments ; or, in other words, of the 

 mode and aptitude of the living solid § in each indi- 

 vidual, to be affected by stimuli, especially the mental ; 

 and again, of the mental stimuli, to be excited with 

 greater or less facility. 



79 So various are the differences of degree and com- 

 bination in the temperaments, that their divisions and 

 orders may be multiplied almost without end. We 



St. J. Van. Geuns, De corporum habitudine anima: hujtisqtie virium indice at 

 moderatrice. Harderv. 1789. 4to. 



* Galen, De sanitate tuenda. L. i. 



t W. F. Ad. Gerresheiin, De sanitate cuivis homini propria. Lugd. Bat 

 1764. 4 to. 



X Lavater, Physiogiwmtiche Pragmente. T. iv. p. 343. 



W. Ant Ficker, Comm. de temperamentis hominum quatcnux ex fabrica et 

 structur a corporis pendent. Gotting. 1791. 4to. 



J. N. Halte, Mem. de la Soc. Midicale tTEmttlat. T. in. p. 342. 



§ To the numerous arguments by which the moderns have overthrown the 

 doctrine of the ancients, and proved that the temperament depends on the living 

 solids rather than on the nature of the blood, I may add the celebrated example 

 of the Hungarian sister twins, who, at the beginning of the last century, were 

 born united at the lower part of the back, and attained their twenty-second 

 year in this state. They were, as is well known, of very different temperaments, 

 although dissection discovered that their sanguiferous systems anastomosed so 

 considerably that the blood of both must hav« been the same. 



