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CHAPTER IV 



Theory of Temperaments. 



" The moderns have neither by observation extended the 

 ancient distinctions of temperaments, nor, though they have 

 attempted it, have they ever given, as far as I can judge, any 

 happy explanation of the causes or foundation of the distinctions 

 they have so generally adopted.'' CULLEN. 



IT was maintained by the great Hippocrates, 

 that the vital spirit or soul, O/^r?,) is the same in 

 all men, and in every description of animals, 

 that as death is always produced by excessive 

 hemorrhage, the soul resides in the blood : that 

 all diseases are essentially the same, modified, 

 however, by climate and season, air and food, 

 age, sex, conditions of the mind; and are always 

 owing to some derangement of the soul, which 

 he also termed Trvayia, Qep^ov, and <J>WIQ : that all 

 organized bodies are composed of four primitive 

 elements, which are endowed with inherent pro- 

 perties of heat, cold, dryness, and moisture, that 

 all the varieties of constitution in man, whether in 

 a state of health or disease, depend on the predo- 

 minance of one or more of what he called the four 

 cardinal humours ; viz, red blood, yellow bile, 

 black bile, and phlegm ; giving rise to the san- 

 guine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic tem- 

 peraments. 



