while the great majority of women calculate upon finding their chief happiness in matrimonial life, and look upon the nursery and domestic circle as their peculiar sphere of usefulness and enjoyment, it has never been even proposed to impart to them the slightest tincture of that preliminary knowledge of the human, and especially of the infant, constitution, without which they are necessarily and plainly unqualified for the duties which God has assigned to them, in intrusting the young to their charge and guidance. Even at this time of day, far on in the nineteenth century, amidst all our boasted enlightenment, the young and "well educated" female, who is already thinking of a husband, and hopes in a very few years to be the mother of a promising family, is not taught, in ordinary schools, a single fact or principle having any direct reference to the intelligent fulfilment of the duties which are by and by to occupy the most of her time, and become the subjects of her anxious thoughts and feelings. In music, in dancing, in languages, and in drawing, she receives the best and most expensive instruction which the means of her parents will permit; but when she becomes a mother for the first time, and her heart is overflowing with tenderness towards the infant being to whom she has given birth, and she considers in what manner its delicate and fragile frame ought to be treated, she experiences the deep and bitter mortification consequent on utter ignorance of its nature and wants, and, in utter helplessness, is obliged to look to a servant, or a nurse scarcely better-informed than herself, for that guidance which ought to have proceeded from her own mind, and on the fitness or unfitness of which, the life and happiness of her child may directly depend!

If the care of the young be the peculiar, and, when rightly performed, the most delightful and important occupation in which an affectionate and sensible woman can possibly be employed, and that to which almost every young female looks forward with longing, why should not her education purposely embrace such a knowledge of the nature and laws of the constitution, and of the elements of science, as shall best fit her for the duties which she is afterwards to be engaged, and on the right discharge of which her happiness is mainly to depend? There is no one reason to be urged against, but very many in favour of this rational proposition. We have long contended that "the ignorance of the natural laws," to use Mrs Barwell's words, "is the source of most of the ills under which all parts of the community suffer; and that in education, ignorance of the physical and mental qualities of the being upon whom we have to act, is the chief cause of the eventual failure ;" and we therefore heartily approve of Mrs Barwell's lending her aid to remedy the evil, by the present attempt to "enlighten the un

derstandings of those who are intrusted with the care and superintendence of the nursery," either as servants or as mothers.

Mrs Barwell's little book is plainly and pleasingly written, and the information which it contains can scarcely fail to be useful to those for whom it is designed. The remarks on the moral treatment of children are not less judicious than those relating to their physical management, and we therefore wish her Hints" every success in bringing about a better state of things. When so much is doing to improve the condition of mankind, surely the palpable deficiencies already alluded to as destroying the usefulness of female education will not be much longer overlooked.

We think it right to add, that we differ from Mrs Barwell in recommending sleep immediately after eating, as a promoter of digestion (p. 18.). She says that "Nature intends this, because digestion goes on better during sleep, and Nature's laws must be obeyed." Experience seems to us to indicate the reverse. We know that if a grown person goes to sleep immediately after a meal, his rest is either very disturbed and dreamy, or of an apoplectic kind; and when he awakes his stomach is still oppressed, and his appetite null. Indeed, Mrs Boswell herself mentions, that when an infant is over fed, "it is consequently restless," and cannot sleep. The brain, in fact, becomes oppressed with blood, and all the functions, digestion among the number, are impeded.

If, on the other hand, we eat only a moderate meal, such as the system requires, no drowsiness follows. We feel for a time averse to active exertion, and Nature obviously intended that we should then avoid it; but unless previously fatigued, we experience no unusual tendency to sleep, but rather a cheer. ful contentment and desire to enjoy the present. This halfquiescent state is the most favourable for digestion, and if we indulge in sleep in such circumstances, we run the risk of awaking with headach, and a stomach distended by flatulence. It is when digestion is nearly completed that sleep is most beneficial, and most tranquil; and hence it is a kind of axiom in medicine, that supper, when taken at all, should be a very light meal, and be finished at least two or three hours before going to bed; and that digestion may be nearly completed before the approach of sleep. It is the deposition of the nourishing particles by the blood to which sleep seems to be peculiarly favourable, and hence the tendency to fatness in those who indulge in it to excess.

ARTICLE XII,

ESSAY ON THE TEMPERAMENTS, CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO CEREBRAL ORGANIZATION. Read at a Meeting of the Southampton Phrenological Class. By Mr S. C.

THE term temperament is applied to those differences of external appearance which are supposed to indicate the comparative states of the fibres of the body, as they are more or less dense, or as possessing one of the functions of life in greater activity, or one of the constituents of the animal body in greater quantity, than another. In a popular way we call a man with a loose soft fleshy-looking face, and corpulent frame, a lazylooking man; and one of compact muscles and spare frame, an active-looking man. Both these states may be variously modified by a number of accompanying circumstances which we know, it seems, almost instinctively, how to appreciate, and of which it is not needful for me to enter into detail at present. But in thus judging of the activity, or indolence of a man from his external form, we judge from the temperament; and, when we are deceived, it would probably be found in all instances that those who appeared indolent, but were really active, had an organization, extraordinarily powerful, so as to counterbalance the feeble temperament; and that those who were indolent, with an active temperament, possessed a feeble or restraining organization. On this view of the case I shall have occasion to speak at some length by and bye.

The subject of temperament was studied by physiologists long before Phrenology came into existence as a system. Systematic medical writers have uniformly insisted on the importance of observing idiosyncracies, or peculiar constitutions of Individuals, and have instituted arbitrary divisions to which, either simple or combined, all mankind might be referred; and, according to which, medical treatment might in some degree be regulated. Amongst the ancients, and during the middle ages, the fact was noticed, and was disposed of in that summary manner which resulted from the preference shewn by those who then affected to interpret nature, to permit their imagination, with the most perverse ingenuity, to devise causes, rather than to employ their reason in discovering them. By some of the classical writers on medicine, living bodies were supposed to be constituted by the harmonious union of all the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water; or, as they are more frequently called by them in the abstract, hot, cold, moist, and dry; they considered that as any one of these existed in greater proportion than the rest, in a particular body, the constitution and character of the individual

Thomas

were determined. This is the doctrine which forms the subject of Galen's book, "de Temperamentis." But a more strictly medical classification was made by Hippocrates, which was generally received during the middle ages. It is thus described in an old volume which professes to teach us the secret of astrology, agriculture, alchemy, commerce, and medicine." As I have found in the astronomical science there be four different sorts of humours in the body of man, of which the four complexions" (i. e. temperaments)" are formed; and of these, one is composed of yellow choler, another of black choler, a third of phlegm, and a fourth of blood, and if one of these be wanting the body must perish, because they equally sustain it; and all these ought to be kept in an equality, for if one be predominant over the rest, it puts the body out of order." Another division which has more claim to scientific notice was made by a French physiologist, and distinguishes three cardinal temperaments—the cephalic, the thoracic, and the abdominal. The first was named from paλn the Greek for a head, and was indicated by greater size, or superior activity of the organs of the head; the second, named from the thorax, or cavity containing the heart and lungs, was shewn by a full open chest, and vigour in the functions of respiration and circulation; and the third, called from the abdomen, was exhibited in the "fair round belly with good capon lined,” and general flaccidity of the muscles. The first of them was supposed to evince_intellectual power; the second physical strength, and the third indolence. It must be admitted that this division has the recommendation of great simplicity, of depending on very obvious indications, and indeed of every requisite except the most important, that of convenient practical application.

Other physiologists, such as Dr Gregory and Richerand, have considered that five principal temperaments may be distinguished; which they have termed the bilious, the lymphatic, the melancholic, the sanguinous, and the nervous; to each of these they have vaguely and discordantly ascribed moral and intellectual peculiarities, but their primary object has of course been to apply them usefully to medical science. How far they have succeeded in this, and whether sufficient diligence has been used to collect and compare individual facts, and to develope their dependence on principles, it is not for me to determine. The design of the present paper is merely to consider the temperaments, in their relation to cerebral organization, as they influence the moral and intellectual character of man.

From general neglect of the subject of temperaments by recent phrenological writers, I believe I cannot better commence a phrenological sketch of them than by a quotation from the valuable work on characters, by one of the earliest and most

intelligent phrenologists, from which his deliberate view of their importance will be seen, although, I believe, it will be found that even he has not treated them so thoroughly, so clearly, nor in such immediate relation to cerebral development, as the nature of the case requires." The first point," says he, "to be considered by the phrenologist is the bodily constitution of the individual subject of observation, whether this is lymphatic, sanguine, bilious, nervous, or is made up by a mixture of these primitive temperaments. This preliminary step is necessary in order to enable him to conclude concerning the degree of activity possessed by the cerebral organs," To this remark of Dr Spurzheim's I would venture to adds that not merely do the temperaments exert a great influence on the activity of the organs, but they affect certain points of character of no small importance, as it respects the happiness and welfare of mankind, and which may exist most dissimilar with exactly corresponding development of brain. As an instance of this, I knew a gentleman whose cerebrum indicated every quality which should Tead to uniformity of character, and those traits were actually ascribed to him by a phrenologist of respectable attainments; but, of all the men I ever knew, his character, taken as a whole, was the most vacillating and uncertain, and yet you might distinguish the power of his mind working under the disadvantage of a temperament that prompts to idleness.*) I have met with several other instances not less striking, with which I shall not now detain you; for, as I cannot mention names, they could not have the force of proofs, and would only serve as illustrations when no illustration is needed.

The manner in which temperaments have been supposed by phrenologists to indicate different degrees of mental activity, is this. It would seem probable, on the first view of the case, that the brain would participate in any peculiarity of structure existing in all the other portions of the body; although the variations of density, or other qualities of the substance of the brain, be so minute as to elude the most refined researches, it is quite supposable that they may be sufficient to affect the activity of the cerebral organs. It may be recollected that the excellent Dr Watt indulged in a similar speculation to account for the alteration in the power of memory as the age of an individual increased; but as it is, and seems likely to remain a question merely of probability, alike unsupported or uncontra

This must have been simply a case in which there was little or no spontaneous activity of brain; and where, consequently, the faculties would come into play only when excited by their external objects, and have present manifestations differing according to the kind of exciting cause which was applied to them.-EDITOR.