244 TEMPERAMENTS. 



very important consideration. Phrenologists, physiognomists, and 

 physiologists, usually speak of four temperaments : the nervous, 

 fibrous, sanguine, and lymphatic. But the way that these terms 

 have been generally used has tended rather to confuse than to 

 simplify the ideas of most persons on the subject of temperaments, 

 as they are too often referred to, and understood, as if each 

 temperament was something distinct in itself, and not merely a 

 name given to each individual's estimate of the diflFerent propor- 

 tions in the combination of the same elements. To speak of 

 pure temperaments, or even of good and bad temperaments, is 

 misleading. All that can be meant by such terms is a desirable 

 or undesirable combination or preponderance of nerves, or blood 

 vessels, in the structure of the animal tissues. 



581. — What we call lean meat, is a collection of blood 

 vessels, fibres, and nerves, and the temperament of an animal 

 depends upon the proportion of each distributed through his 

 muscles, and upon the strength of the controlling or supplying 

 power with which they are connected. Thus, if there is a more 

 than usually large proportion of nerves, and they are connected 

 with an active brain, we have the restless, excitable, nervous 

 temperament. If, on the contrary, the blood vessels, or feeding 

 tubes predominate, and they are connected with very capacious 

 digestive organs, we have the fattening, sleeping, easy-going, 

 lymphatic temperament. If the nerves and blood vessels are 

 each in moderate proportion, and the fibres are large, coarse, hard 

 and strong, with the nerves of motion more potent than the 

 nerves of sensation, we have the useful, active, enduring, fibrous 

 temperament. The term sanguine temperament is applied to any 

 due combination of nerves, blood vessels, and fibres, connected 

 with heart and lungs, large and good enough to highly purify a 

 large quantity of blood. 



582. — Thus we see that no horse's temperament can be too 

 sanguine or too fibrous, but itmay be too nervous or too lymphatic. 

 In other words you want, in every horse, large and good heart 

 and lungs, and well developed, strong, enduring muscles ; but 

 you want a totally difterent degree of nervousness in the race 

 horse to what you could tolerate in the dray horse. In the one 



