NATURE 237 
THURSDAY, MAY 9g, 1912. 
MEDICAL MORPHOLOGY. 
Morphologie Médicale: Etude des quatre types 
humains. Applications a la clinique et a la théra- 
peutique, par A. Chaillon and L. Mac-Auliffe. 
Pp. iv+248. (Paris: Octave Doin et Fils, 
1912.) Price 5 francs. 
HE title of ‘Morphologie Médicale,” which 
the distinguished French authors have 
given to their book, did at first suggest to the 
reviewer that he was to have the pleasure of 
making a new subject of research known to the 
readers of Nature. ‘The subject, however, is not 
a new 
nature ‘‘ morphologie médicale” is really a resus- 
citation of the old doctrine of “constitutions” or 
“temperaments,” which was so beloved by physi- 
cians who lived before the days of Pasteur and 
Lister. The names are changed with the times; 
certain “physical types,’’ not ‘‘ constitutions,’’ are 
recognised. The exact methods of the anthropo- 
‘ ” 
logist are employed to distinguish one type from | 
the other. 
Patients in the cliniques, according to our 
authors, can be classified into four types :—the 
respiratory, the digestive, the muscular, the cere- 
bral, The names at once suggest the underlying 
characteristic of each type: in the first the respira- 
tory is the dominant system of the body; in the 
second the digestive, and so on. The head offers 
certain features which assist the clinician to 
recognise these types. Two transverse lines are 
but a very old one, for in its essential | 
| tive specimen of the “cerebral”; 
and really unworkable, but at the same time one 
must confess that such types are clearly recognis- 
able from the descriptions given by the authors. 
If the members of our Cabinet were to visit Paris 
and enter a clinique where this doctrine of type is 
put in practice, there could be no doubt as to 
which type some of the Ministers belong. The 
War Office would provide an excellent example 
of the digestive type; the Admiralty a representa- 
the Foreign 
Office of the “‘respiratory”’; and the head of the 
Local Government Board could stand as a fair 
example of the “short muscular” type. The diffi- 
culties arise when we come to the others; the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer cannot be fitted in 
anywhere; nor the Premier, nor the Home Secre- 
tary, and so with the others. The authors confess 
that the types are apt to be mixed. Indeed, it is 
not too much to say that 60 to 70 per cent. of 
men and women are so ill suited to fit the classi- 
| fication proposed that no two physicians or an- 
thropologists would likely agree as to the types to 
which this great indeterminable class should be 
assigned, 
In this work there are all the defects which were 
| inherent in the work of Lavater and of Gall and 
Spruzheim, Yet for two things anthropologists will 
be indebted to MM: Chaillon and Mac-Auliffe : first 
for a very clear exposition of the manner in which 
they make their measurements; second, for the 
tables which include their anthropological data. 
| In our opinion, the anthropological researches 
drawn across the face—one at the root of the | 
nose, the other at the junction of the nose and 
upper lip. The zone between these two lines, con- 
taining the nose, is the respiratory zone; the 
segment above—the forehead and vertex of the 
head—represents the cerebral zone; the one below, 
comprising the mouth and chin, belongs to the 
digestive zone. The predominance in size of any 
of these three zones of the head helps to indicate 
the type to which the individual belongs. 
Similarly as regards the trunk; if the thoracic 
part is relatively long, the individual is of the re- | 
spiratory type; if the abdomen is unduly de- 
veloped, then, of course, the patient is of the | 
” 
“digestive” type. The muscular type is repre- 
sented by gymnasts and 
limbs. It is strange that the authors cite the 
great Napoleon as an example of this type, and 
Edison as a representative of the cerebral type. | 
Rossini, the composer, is their selected example of | 
“ 
the “‘ digestive ’’ type, and Spinoza of the “re- 
spiratory.” 
The classification seems altogether unscientific 
NO. 2219, VOL. 89] 
athletes with brawny | 
which have been carried out in connection with our 
hospitals are more satisfactory in method and in 
aim than those of the French authors. Two of 
these may be cited: the inquiry which Dr. Shrub- 
sall made several years ago’on the out-patients of 
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and the research pub- 
| lished in a recent number of Biometrika by Dr. 
David Macdonald. In both these papers the 
biometrical methods were employed to ascertain if 
there was any co-relationship between anthropo- 
logical type and disease. The results obtained sug- 
gested there was such a relationship, and one 
which was capable of exact mathematical expres- 
sion. AK: 
HISTORY OF DETERMINANTS. 
The Theory of Determinants in the Historical 
Order of Development. By Dr. T. Muir, 
C.M.G., F.R.S. Vol. ii.: The Period 1841 to 
1860. Pp. xvi+475. (London: Macmillan and 
Go., Ltd.; r9rz.) Price 17s. net. 
HE period covered by this voiume is a very 
important one; it practically settled the 
notation, and, owing mainly to the rise of the 
calculus of forms, it brought into prominence 
L 
