DIGESTION AND FOOD. 85 



lants, without danger of disease. Stimulating food or drinks 

 create an unnatural activity of the heart and blood-vessels, 

 and are therefore injurious to them. 



182. In the bilious temperament, the skin is brown, and 

 inclining to yellow ; the hair is usually dark ; the form is 

 moderately full, but not fat; the limbs are not gracefully 

 rounded, but the muscles are well developed and very strong. 

 Men of this class are not very quick in mind or body. 

 They are calm and placid not irritable in temper. They 

 have great boldness of purpose, energy in action, and perse- 

 verance in their undertakings. They are men who succeed 

 in their course of life, because they are cool and cautious in 

 their plans, and indefatigable and persevering in carrying 

 them into execution. In the higher and in the lower walks 

 of life, they are successful. 



183. Wherever persons of the bilious temperament be- 

 gin life, they go up higher. There is within them a restless 

 energy, that is not content with the present, whatever it may 

 be. Napoleon Bonaparte is a remarkable instance of this tem- 

 perament ; Capt. P., who at twenty-two years of age was an 

 hostler, and afterward became owner and commander of one 

 of the largest steamboats on the Mississippi, is another ; and 

 most of those who in the beginning of life were day-labor- 

 ers, without means or friends, but afterwards are prosperous 

 and wealthy, and become the leading men in their towns, 

 and the governing men in their respective business associa- 

 tions, all, or nearly all, belong to this class, and are of the 

 bilious temperament. These men neither need, nor are they 

 benefited by the stimulating diet of the lymphatic, nor by 

 the spare and cautious diet of the nervous and sanguine. 

 Their temper and habits of life generally imply a great 

 amount of action of body or mind, generally of both, and 

 consequently a great expenditure of material ; they need, 

 therefore, a full and generous diet of nutritious food, to sus- 

 tain them in their activity. 



184. Without supposing that any one can tell exactly the 

 temperament of himself, or of his companions, yet one can 



