OR CONSTITUTIONAL PROPENSITIES. 



423 



The physiologists of Greece, and especially the medical physiologists, did 

 not rest here. They attempted to cluster the different species of idiosyncra- 

 sies, or particular constitutions, that had any resemblance to each other, and 

 to arrange them into genera, which were denominated erases {Kpdam) or tem- 

 peraments. We have the express testimony of Galen,* that Hippocrates was 

 the founder of this system. He conceived the state or condition of the ani- 

 mal frame to be chiefly influenced by the nature and proportion of its radical 

 fluids, at least, far more so than by those of its solids. The radical fluids he 

 supposed to be four, the elementary materials of which were furnished by the 

 stomach, as the common receptacle of the food ; but each of which is de- 

 pendent upon a peculiar organ for its specific production or secretion. Thus, 

 the blood he asserted to be furnished by the heart; the phlegm, lymph, or 

 finer watery fluid, by the head; the yellow bile by the gall-duct; and the 

 black bile by the spleen. The perfection of health, or hygeia, as the Greeks 

 denominated it, he conceived to result from a due proportion of these fluids 

 to each other; and the different temperaments, or predispositions of the body, 

 to peculiar constitutions or idiosyncrasies, from a disturbance of the balance, 

 and a preponderating secretion or influence of any one of them over the rest. 



Hence Hippocrates established four genera of temperaments, which he de- 

 nominated from the respective fluids whose superabundance he apprehended 

 to be the cause of them, the bilious or choleric, produced by a surplus of yel- 

 low bile^and dependent on the action of the gall-duct or liver ; the atraei- 

 LTARY or melancholic, produccd by a surplus of black bile, and dependent upon 

 the action of the spleen ; the sanguineous, produced by a surplus of blood, and 

 dependent upon the action of the heart ; and the phlegmatic, produced by a 

 surplus of phlegm, lymph, or fine watery fluid, dependent upon the action of 

 the brain. 



This arrangement of Hippocrates continued in great favour with physiolo- 

 gists, and with very little variation, till the beginning of the last century, at 

 which time it was warmly supported, in all its bearings, by the quaint but solid 

 learning of Sir John Floyer.f And even to the present hour, notwithstanding 

 all the changes that have taken place in the sciences of physiology, anatomy, 

 and medicine, and the detection of some erroneous reasonings and opinions in 

 the writings of Hippocrates upon this subject, intermixed with much that is 

 admirable and excellent, — it has laid a foundation for all the systems of tem- 

 peraments, constitutions, or natural characters, that have more lately been 

 offered to the world. Most of these, however, have been distinguished by an 

 introduction of five other genera, denominated a warm, a cold, a dry, a moist, 

 and a nervous or irritable temperament : the first four of these five having 

 been added to the list by Boerhaave, but unnecessarily, as they may readily 

 be comprehended, as I shaH presently show you, under the four simple tem- 

 peraments of Hippocrates ; while the fifth, in the general opinion of modern 

 physiologists, is requisite to supply what must be admitted to be a chasm in 

 the Greek hypothesis. 



I have dwelt the longer upon this subject, because it has an immediate and 

 very extensive bearing upon the popular phraseology of the present day, in 

 all nations ; and will give us a clear insight into the meaning of various col- 

 loquial terms and idioms, which we are in the constant habit of employing, in 

 many instances, without any definite signification. 



The two usual words to express the moral disposition or propensity of a 

 man, and especially as connected with the passions, are temper and humour. 

 Both are Latin terms : the first, in its original sense, imports minghng, com- 

 pounding, modifying, or qualifying, and has an obvious reference to the com- 

 bination of the four radical fluids just mentioned ; on the peculiar temper or 

 proportion of which to each other we have just seen that the Greek physiolo- 

 gists supposed the idiosyncrasy or peculiar constitution to depend : and hence 

 TEMPER is, in a certain sense, synonymous with constitution itself, though 



* De Temperament, ii. p. 60. ^b. 



t See his Physician's Pulse-watch; or an Essay to explain the Old Art of Feeling the Pulse, and to ini« 

 prove it by the Help of the Pulse-watch. 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1707. 



