danum; she closed her curtains in the evening, bade farewell to her attendants, and flattered herself she should never awake from her sleep. In the morning, however, notwithstanding this incredible dose, she awoke in the agonies of death. By the usual means she was enabled to get rid of the poison she had so largely taken, and, not only recovered her life, but which is more extraordinary, her perfect senses! The physician who was called in to the case naturally conjectured, that it was the influence of her disordered mind over her body which prevented this vast quantity of laudanum from its usual action by terminating in death.

Camus, a French physician, who combined literature with science, the author of "Abdeker, or the Art of Cosmetics," which he discovered in exercise and temperance, produced another beneficial work, written in 1733, "La Médicine de l'Esprit." His conjectural cases are at least as numerous as his more positive facts; for he is not wanting in imagination. Insisting that natural causes force the soul and body to act together, the defects of the intellectual operations depend on those of the organization, which may be altered or destroyed by physical causes; and he properly adds, that we are to consider that the soul is material, because, while existing in matter, it is operated on by matter. Such is the theory of "La Médicine de l'Esprit," which, though it will never be quoted by physicians, may nevertheless contain some facts deserving of their attention.

A recent writer seems to have been struck with these and other analogies. Mr. Haslam, in his work on Sound Mind, says, "there seems to be a considerable similarity between the morbid state of the instruments of voluntary motion (the body), and certain affections of the mental power (the mind). Thus, paralysis has its counterpart in the defects of recollection, where the utmost endeavour to remember is ineffectually exerted. Tremor may be compared with incapability of fixing the attention; and this involuntary state of muscles, ordinarily subjected to the will, also finds a parallel where the mind loses its influence in the train of thoughts, and becomes subject to spontaneous intrusions, as may be exemplified in reveries, dreams, and some species of madness.

Let us now see how the varieties of constitutions are applicable to different tempers, according to the philosophy of the ancient physicians; and how far they are borne out by modern experience and observation.

SECTION II.

SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON DIFFERENT
CONSTITUTIONS AND TEMPERS.

ACCORDING to Hippocrates, the human body contains four humours very different with respect to heat, cold, moisture, and dryness—namely, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile; which several humours are frequently brought up by vomiting, and discharged in the opposite direction; that health consists in a due mixture of these four humours; and that distempers are produced by a redundancy in any of them. Upon this observation of the "father of physic," the four principal temperaments of choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic, and sanguine, have been established. But Galen, who was always partial to subtilities and divisions, has reckoned up nine kinds of constitutions, namely, four simple, the hot, the cold, the moist, and the dry; four compound, the hot and moist, the hot and dry, the cold and moist, the cold and dry; and one moderate healthy temperament, consisting in a mediocrity, inclining to no extreme.

As the most simple division, and that which will be here best understood, we shall prefer that of Hippocrates; and to convey a distinct idea of these constitutions, it

will be necessary for us to point out with as little elaboration as possible what change is produced in the whole mass of fluids, by the prevailing humours from which these temperaments take their names, and what effect this change has upon the body and mind.

1. In choleric constitutions, that is, in bodies abounding with yellow bile, the blood is hot and thin, circulates with great rapidity, disposes the body to inflammatory diseases, and the mind to a promptness and impetuosity in all its deliberations and actions. Persons of this constitution ought to avoid all occasions of dispute, strong liquors, violent exercise, and every thing by which they are apt to be over-heated.

2. Melancholic temperaments, are such as abound with a gross, earthy, austere humour, called by the ancients black bile. In these constitutions the blood is heavy and thick, moves slowly, disposes the body to glandular obstructions, and lowness of spirits; and the mind to fear and grief. To such persons a healthy air, moderate exercise, light food, a little good wine, which should be mixed with water for common drink, and cheerful company, are the best means to preserve health.

3. Phlegmatic constitutions are those where there is a large proportion of watery tenacious mucilage. Here the slimy blood circulates languidly, disposes the body to white swellings and dropsical disorders, and the mind to stupidity and indolence. In this constitution, a diet moderately attenuating, constant exercise, and some

warm gentle physic, at proper times, will keep off troublesome complaints.

4. The Sanguine constitution. Here there is no redundancy of bile or phlegm; the blood, except in cases of fulness from high living, or inanition from hæmorrhages, circulates freely and equally through all the vessels, which disposes the body to health and long life, and the mind to cheerfulness and benevolence. The principal care of such persons should be, by a moderate and prudent use of all the necessaries of life, to avoid the extremes of plenitude and voluptuousness, and every sort of intemperance which may injure a benign and healthy constitution.

It is not easy, in every instance, to distinguish these various constitutions; but a man capable of reflexion may, by observation and experience, discover the temperament of which he himself principally partakes; consequently he may, by proper precautions, obviate any inconvenience apt to arise from it. And from what we have remarked relative to these temperaments, it will naturally follow,

First, that there can be no such thing invented by man as an universal remedy to prevent or cure all kinds of diseases; because that which would agree with the hot, must disagree with the cold. Besides, all such boasted specifics have been, by experience, found to be ineffectual, and every pretender to them has been convicted either of gross ignorance or dishonesty.

Secondly, we cannot from certainty vouch for any