The Hand Phrenologically Considered 2

The Hand Phrenologically Considered 2

In individuals of the choleric, or motive temperament, the bony

frame-work of the body is strong and much developed; the articulations

are large and prominent; the muscles firm, with but little cellular

tissue and fat; the physiognomy decided, with sharply-chiselled

features. Such individuals are remarkable for promptitude and energy of

action; impetuous, passionate, and endowed with great determination,

opposition only increases their endurance, and excites a proportionate

effort to conquer it. In nature these temperaments are not frequently

encountered pure and free from admixture, but mostly more or less

mixed the one with the other. That must be held to be the most perfect

temperament in which they are all blended in such proportions that

neither is in excess; “in which moderate excitability is combined with

a due amount of energy of action; in which imagination is tempered by

reason, and the ideas and conceptions are regulated by judgment, and

rectified by reflection.” Impressions thus do not react upon all in the

same manner. In some they are like figures traced upon the sand of the

sea-shore, which are obliterated by the first advancing wave; they pass

away together with the ideas to which they give rise, without leaving

any, even the slightest evidence, of their existence. In others they

are as characters deeply graven upon metal; arousing the attention

with an irresistible force, they enchain and captivate the faculties,

ceasing but to leave behind them a powerful and lasting impression upon

the mind.

 

 

EFFECTS OF AGE, SEX, CLIMATE, ETC. UPON MIND.

 

By age, sex, locality, climate, and regimen the mental operations are

likewise powerfully influenced. By locality and climate we do not

mean air and temperature merely, but the sum total of all influences,

whether physical or moral, by which in every place we are surrounded.

The bodily structure is undoubtedly and materially influenced by

climate. Of this the modern Hungarians afford a most convincing proof—a

race of people of a fine physical conformation, and yet, as their

language and traditions attest, derived from the same stock as the

barbarous, deformed Ostiaks inhabiting the Uralian Chain, to whom,

as we learn from history, they bore no slight resemblance, on their

arrival in the countries in which they are at present located. Climate

may thus affect the mind in two ways, by modifying the structure of

the body, and by the more direct action which it exerts upon the

mind itself; and it is to these two causes that we must ascribe the

differences in the form and habits, the government and laws, the

superstitions and literature, of northern and southern nations.

 

To differences and modifications of structure constantly correspond

differences and modifications in ideas and passions. The physical form

and intellectual qualities are closely and mutually connected. Thus,

one individual may excel another in a given pursuit, this excellence

resulting rather from a peculiar aptitude for, than from a particular

devotion to, its cultivation.

 

This aptitude, in many cases at least, is to be mainly referred to some

peculiarity of structure in one or more of the organs of the senses;

it is original, and without the particular organic conformation could

never have been acquired by centuries of practice and experience.

 

 

BODILY SUFFERING DEPENDENT UPON ORGANISATION OF NERVOUS SYSTEM.

 

To differences in the degree of sensibility of the nervous system,

together with the varying amount of the peripheral ramifications

distributed to the external surface, must be ascribed the different

amount of suffering experienced upon the application of inordinate

stimuli to the nerves. The will is undoubtedly capable of exerting very

great control over the manifestations of feeling called forth by such

painful impressions upon sentient nerves. Of this Roman history affords

us many notable examples. But it seems probable that the Romans were

not endowed with a nervous system so delicately organised as that of

the more highly civilised Greeks; witness the general structure of

their language and their comparative inferiority in the fine arts.

Neither heroism, nor philosophy, nor even religion, can prevent some

organisations from exhibiting manifestations of great pain from

impressions upon nerves, which in others would occasion but a moderate

amount of suffering; a physical necessity compels them to manifest

evidences of intense feeling; and thus, by a rude shock inflicted

upon the nervous system, a mathematician may be at once recalled from

the contemplation of other spheres, or a metaphysician from the most

sublime speculations on the nature and essence of the Deity.

 

In the lowest grades of society the general nervous sensibility is

mostly obtuse; in the highest, on the contrary, it is frequently

morbidly acute: in the one case the mental manifestations are dull and

obscure; in the other they may be brilliant, but are frequently wanting

in strength and energy.

 

In his treatise on tropical diseases, Dr. Mosely observes, that

“Negroes are void of sensibility to a surprising degree. They are not

subject to nervous diseases. They sleep soundly in every disease, nor

does any mental disturbance ever keep them awake. They bear chirurgical

operations much better than white people; and what would be the cause

of insupportable pain to a white man, a Negro would almost disregard. I

have amputated the legs of many Negroes, who have held the upper part

of the limb themselves.”

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER II.

 

“Sollt es wahr Sein....

Dasz die Menschengestalt, von allen sichtlichen Dingen

Ganz allein uns lügt, dasz wir, was edel und albern,

Was beschränkt und grosz, im Angesicht zu suchen,

Eitele Thoren sind, betrogne, betrügende Thoren.”

 

GÖTHE.

 

COUNTENANCE INDEX OF MIND.

 

 

Talleyrand was wont to say, that speech was given to man for the

purpose of concealing his thoughts. Among mankind in general the

countenance may, with equal force, be said to represent a series

of hieroglyphics by which the internal emotions of the mind may be

readily deciphered. Observe a child thrown for the first time among

a number of strangers. To some it will immediately, and as it were

instinctively, attach itself, while to others it will manifest the

greatest repugnance and dislike. Such first impressions are not the

result of reasoning, they spring from the quickness of perception

peculiar to childhood; and the choice is in general not the less happy,

although the reason may have had no effect in determining it. With a

rapid glance a mere infant will seize the prevailing __EXPRESSION__ of

the physiognomy, and detect at once the mental constitution of those

by whom it is surrounded; for pride and impatience, and kindness and

benevolence, are written on the plastic countenance in broad legible

characters, though the many, with their blunted perceptions, may, to

a certain extent, have lost the key to their solution. Contrast the

__EXPRESSION__ of the physiognomy of some of the more celebrated among the

ancients, as exemplified in the collection of antique busts preserved

in the museum of the Capitol at Rome. Compare the broad open brow

and finely-chiselled features of Trajan, or the beauty, majesty, and

grace expressed in the countenance of either of the Antonines, with

the coarse, heavy, animal face of Vitellius, or the dull, morose

__EXPRESSION__ of Caligula or of Commodus,—

 

——“Without a ray

Of mind, that makes each feature play

Like sparkling waves on a sunny day.”

 

The difference is as striking as that which we know from daily

observation to exist between the face of a rogue and that of an honest

man; indeed, we are disposed to believe, with Benjamin Franklin,

“that if rogues knew the advantages attached to the practices of the

virtues, they would become honest men from mere roguery.” It was for

this reason, probably, that beauty of form and proportion were so

highly prized by the ancients; and when they prayed the gods to grant

them the beautiful with the good, was it not because by experience

they had found that in fact they were most frequently associated? In

support of this position, we may cite the authority of Bacon, who, in

his Essay on Beauty, remarks, “that Augustus Cæsar, Titus Vespasianus,

Philip le Bel of France, Edward IV. of England, Alcibiades of Athens,

and Ismael the sophi of Persia, were all high and great spirits, and

yet the most beautiful men of their time.” Again, the physiognomy of

the passions affords us further proof that the emotions of the mind

betray themselves by peculiar corporeal phenomena,—each having, as it

were, its own proper dialect. Notice the __EXPRESSION__ of the passions

which follow each other in such quick succession, and are so forcibly

depicted upon the mobile countenance of an infant, even before any

voluntary movements can be executed by the feeble and powerless limbs.

Look at a coward, his countenance blanched, and almost cadaverous,—the

heavy limbs drooping and powerless,—the instruments of life paralysed,

as though the fountain of existence were suddenly dried up. For grief,

take the testimony of Byron, where he describes its effects in producing

 

“The intersected lines of thought,—

Those furrows which the burning share

Of sorrow ploughs untimely there,—

Scars of the lacerated mind

Which the soul’s war doth leave behind.”

 

Regard a man under the influence of a sublime or heroic thought, with

his head proudly elevated and nostrils dilated,—he raises himself to

his utmost height; while, at the idea of infinity, or the prospect of

a boundless expanse, the arms are involuntarily extended as though he

would soar away into unlimited space. The impress of pride is stamped

in the bold erect bearing, and that of fear in the drooping head and

timid step. So true is it that joy and sorrow, love and hate, pain

and pleasure, virtue and vice, all betray themselves by their organic

signs, that when any of these affections are habitual, or frequently

recur, their external manifestations become permanently marked in the

form; and it is in this sense that the habits and emotions of early

youth stamp the lineaments with a character never to be effaced,

or which, in _many cases_ at least, are destined to endure through

life. Are we not then justified in concluding, that the kind and

degree of mental developement,—the presiding thought,—the ruling

and predominating principle of life, is influenced by the physical

temperament and constitution, and that this latter is in its turn

reacted upon by the mind?

 

PARTICULAR PARTS OF ORGANISM INDICATIVE OF MODE OF LIFE AND MENTAL

TENDENCY.

 

We have next to inquire, whether that which is undoubtedly true with

respect to the whole does not also obtain with respect to a part?

whether, in fact, from the examination of a small portion of an

organism—an extremity, for example—we should be enabled to determine

the nature, mode of life, and mental tendency of the being to which it belonged? For a satisfactory solution of this important question we must appeal to the testimony afforded by the animal world.