burning fevers, the greater is the danger. A man whose natural aspect is mild and calm, but who stares at me, with a florid complexion, and wildness in his eyes, prognosticates an approaching delirium. I have likewise seen a look indescribably wild, accompanied by paleness, when nature, in an inflammation of the lungs, was approaching a crisis, and the patient was become excessively cold and frantic. The countenance relaxed, the lips pale and hanging, in burning fevers, are bad symptoms, as they denote great debility; and, if the change and decay of the countenance be sudden, the danger is great. When the nose is pointed, the face of a lead colour, and the lips livid, inflammation has produced gangrene. There is, frequently, something dangerous to be observed in the countenance, which cannot be known from other symptoms, and which, yet, is very significant. Much is to be observed in the eyes. Boerhaave examined the eyes of the patient with a magnifying glass, that he might see if the blood entered the smaller vessels. Hippocrates held that the avoiding of light, involuntary tears, squinting, one eye less than the other, the white of the eye inflamed, the small veins inclined to be black, too much swelled, or

too much sunken, were, each and all, bad symptoms (page 432). The motion of the patient, and his position in bed, ought, likewise, to be enumerated among the particular symptoms of disease. The hand carried to the forehead, waved, or groping in the air, scratching on the wall, and pulling up the bed clothes, are of this kind. The position in bed is a very significant sign of the internal situation of the patient, and therefore deserves every attention. The more unusual the position is, in any inflammatory disease, the more certainly may we conclude that the anguish is great, and, consequently, the danger. Hippocrates has described the position of the sick, in such cases, with accuracy that leaves nothing to be desired.— The best position in sickness is the usual position in health."

I shall add some other remarks from this physician and physiognomist, whose abilities are superior to envy, ignorance, and quackery. (Page 452) "Swift was lean while he was the prey of ambition, chagrin, and ill temper; but after the loss of his understanding he became fat."-Iis description of envy and its effects on the body are incomparable. (Part II. chap. xi.) “The effects of envy are visible, even in children. They become thin, and easily fall into consump

tions. Envy takes away the appetite, and sleep, and causes feverish motion; it produces gloom, shortness of breath, impatience, restlessness, and a narrow chest. The good name of others, on which it seeks to avenge itself by slander, and feigned but not real contempt, hangs like the sword suspended by a hair over the head of Envy, that continually wishes to torture others, and is itself continually on the rack.-The laughing simpleton becomes disturbed as soon as Envy, that worst of fiends, takes possession of him, and he perceives that he vainly labours to debase that merit which he cannot rival. His eyes roll, he knits his forehead, he becomes morose, peevish, and hangs his lips. There is, it is true, a kind of envy that arrives at old age. Envy in her dark cave, possessed by toothless furies, there hoards her poison, which, with infernal wickedness, she endeavours to eject, over each worthy person, and honourable act. She defends the cause of vice, endeavours to confound right and wrong. She vitally wounds the purest innocence."

The writers most known, and oftenest quoted, by physicians, on semeiotics, are Aretæus, Lomnius, Æmilius Campolongus, Wolf, Hoffman, Wedel, Schroeder, Vater.

I am also acquainted with two dissertations on the same subject, one by Samuel Quelmaltz, - De Prosoposcopiâ Medicâ. Leipzig 1748; and the other by the famous. Stahl-De facie morborum indice, seu morborum æstimatione ex facie. Halle 1700.

But the work which is most perfect, full, and deserving of attention, is Thoma Fieni philosophi ac medici præstantissimi Semeiotice, sive de signis medicis. Lugduni 1664. Yet this acute writer has scarcely noticed the prognostics of disease from the figure of the body, but has, like others, been much more attentive to the diagnostics.

V.

NATIONAL PHYSIOGNOMY.

A.

MY OWN REMARKS.

THAT there is national physiognomy, as well as national character, is undeniable. Whoever doubts of this can never have observed men of different nations, nor have compared the inhabitants of the extreme confines of any two. Compare a Negro and an Englishman, a native of Lapland and an Italian, a Frenchman and an inhabitant of Terra del Fuego. Examine their forms, countenances, characters, and minds. Their difference will be easily seen, though it will, sometimes, be very difficult to describe scientifically.

It is probable we shall discover what is national in the countenance better from the sight of an individual, at first, than of a whole people; at least, so I imagine, from my own experience. Individual countenances discover more the characteristics of a whole nation, than a whole nation does