ADYNAMIC TEMPERAMENTS. 1003 



loped than any of the other tissues, we have that 

 variety termed by the ancients the melancholic, 

 which corresponds with the nervous temperament 

 of Richerand and other modern Physiologists. 

 For they are both represented as marked by a 

 small chest, a pale, sallow, or livid complexion, 

 (indicating a deficiency of bright arterial blood,) 

 a languid circulation, torpor of the stomach, 

 bowels, and of all the secretions, a spare habit, 

 small, soft and feeble muscles, morbid sensibility, 

 sudden fluctuations of temper, with a predisposi- 

 tion to nervous and spasmodic affections. And 

 we have already seen, that the principal difference 

 between this temperament and the phlegmatic is, 

 that in the latter, the abdominal organs are more 

 highly developed than the brain, which is weak 

 and lethargic. 



It is therefore evident that the adynamic tem- 

 perament, whether cold or dry, or cold and moist, 

 whether denominated melancholic, nervous, or 

 phlegmatic, and whether hereditary or acquired, 

 is rather the effect of disease than a primitive or 

 natural constitution. And that it is often ac- 

 quired, would appear from the well known fact, 

 that many distinguished individuals who were 

 originally of the sanguine temperament, have 

 been rendered melancholic or nervous by grief, 

 anxiety, intense study, a sedentary life, and 

 repeated shocks of adversity ; as exemplified in 

 the characters Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, Pascal, 



