Part 66

The common expression of a child being too clever to live, is unfortunately founded on observation. Scrofulous and sickly children are in general remarkable for the quickness of their intellects; and Rousseau maintained that a man who could meditate was a depraved animal. It is a fact that the perfection of one faculty can seldom be attained but at the expense of others. The more our faculties are generally called into action, the less perfect will they be individually;--"Pluribus intentus, minor est ad singula." Thus, the singing of birds is improved by depriving them of sight.

The influence of the mind upon our health is as evident as the influence of our health in the duration of existence. This corollary explains the shortness of life of the diminutive and the deformed, unconnected with such physical defects of organization as might impede the due exercise of their organs.

The fable of Prometheus is a strong illustration of the pernicious effects of intemperance; and by Darwin, and other physiologists, has been considered as comparing the celestial fire that he purloined, to the artificial inspirations of excitement that ultimately preys upon the liver and the other viscera like a voracious vulture. A much deeper philosophy is concealed in this theogenic allegory. Prometheus was the son of Japetus; brother to Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus, who all surpassed mankind in fraud and in guilt. Prometheus himself scoffed the gods, and violated their shrine. Heaven and Earth had formed his father, who had united his destinies with Clymene, one of the Oceanides. Thus Prometheus and Epimetheus arose from the very cradle of the universe; and their very names, [Greek: Promandanein] and [Greek: Epimandanein], signify foresight and improvidence,--praediscere et postea discere,--the prevalent characteristics of all mortals, that either tend to promote or retard the progress of human reason and human happiness. Prometheus strove impiously to possess himself of Divine knowledge, and created man with a base amalgam of earth and the bones of animals, vivified by the celestial fire he had obtained. Jupiter, indignant at his audacity, commanded Vulcan to create a beauteous tempter in the form of woman, on whom every attractive gift might be conferred; and Pandora was sent upon earth with the fatal present of the father of the gods, the box that contained all the evils and distempers that were destined for mankind. The foresight of Prometheus resisted her charms; his improvident brother opened the dreaded casket. Have we not here an illustration of the vanity of science, that aims even at Divine attributes, and whose votaries, like Prometheus, would endeavour, if possible, to deprive wisdom of her power, and break down the boundaries of human intellects? His punishment describes in energetic language the endless and consuming studies of the learned, whose very viscera are corroded in lucubrations too often fruitless, and not unfrequently injurious to themselves and others. Hercules alone could relieve him from his torments:--and does not Hercules in this allegory typify the power of reason, that enables us to release the mind from the trammels both of ignorance and vanity, separated from each other by a gossamer partition? Prometheus, who could resist the most powerful of temptations,--beauty and talent combined,--dared Olympus to seek for that wisdom which would have doomed him to everlasting sufferings, had not strength of mind and the powers of reflection destroyed his merciless tormentor. Can we be surprised that the ancients consecrated games to this beautiful allegory?--games that are still carried on in our days; but, alas! where every vain competitor pretends that he has reached the goal with an unextinguished torch!

CRETINISM.

This singular disorder was first discovered and noticed by Plater, about the middle of the seventeenth century, among the poor inhabitants of Carinthia and the Valais, where, as in the valleys of the Lower Alps and the Pyrenees, it is also found to be an endemic affection. According to Sir George Staunton, it is also observed in Chinese Tartary. It has been erroneously confounded by some writers with bronchocele and rachitis, from both of which it is totally distinct.

Cretinism presents various modifications in kind, and every intermediate grade between that extreme degree of physical and mental debasement which is characterized by the utmost deformity, and entire absence of mental manifestation, the organic and vegetative functions only being performed. There are certain circumstances that distinguish cretins from idiots; and their infirmities appear to depend upon endemic or local causes, regarding which much diversity of opinion has prevailed both amongst medical men and travellers.

The cretins were also called Cagots and Capots. In Navarre these unfortunates go by the name of Gaffos and Ganets; and in various valleys of the Pyrenees they are called Gezits or Gezitains. Near La Rochelle, some of them are also found, and there they are known by the appellation of Coliberts; and in Britanny Cacons and Cagneux. The derivation of these names shows the contempt and disgust that they excited,--Cagot, according to Scaliger, being derived from Canis Gottus, or Dog of a Goth; Colibert is traced to quasi libertus, or slave. The Spaniards call them Gavachos, a term of reproach, which they also applied to the French during the Peninsular struggle.

The body of these poor creatures is stunted, their height not exceeding four feet. There is a total want of due proportion between it and the other parts, the height of the head with reference to the body being from one-fourth to one-fifth, instead of one-eighth, the natural proportion; the neck is strong, and bent downwards; the upper limbs reach below the knees, and the arm is shorter than the fore-arm; the chest narrow, the abdomen hemispherical, and of a length not exceeding the height of the head; the thighs, with the haunches, of greater width than the shoulders, and shorter than the legs, the calves of which are wanting; the feet and toes distorted. In the head, the masticating organs, the lower jaw, and the nose, preponderate considerably over the organs of sense and intelligence; the skull is depressed, and forms a lengthened and angular ellipsis; the receding forehead presents internally large frontal sinuses, to which the brain has yielded part of its place; the top of the head is flattened, instead of being vaulted; the occiput projects but slightly, and runs almost even with the nape of the neck, as in ruminating animals. The face is neither oval nor round, but spread out in width; the eyes are far apart, slightly diverging, small, and deep-seated in their orbits; the pupil contracted, and not very sensitive to light; the eyelids, except when morbidly swollen, are flaccid and pendent. Their look is an unmeaning stare, and turns with indifference from every thing that is not eatable. The elongated form of the lower jaw, the thick and puffed lips, give them a greater resemblance to ruminating creatures than to man. The tongue is rather cylindrical than flat, and the saliva is constantly running from the angles of their mouth. Enlargement of the thyroid glands generally prevails, sometimes to an enormous extent. Indeed, this appearance is commonly considered as a distinguishing sign of cretinism. The other glands of the throat are also obstructed. Many of these poor wretches are both deaf and dumb; yet do they appear unconscious of their miserable existence. Stretched out or gathered up under the solar rays, their head drooping in idiotic apathy, they are only roused from their torpor when food is presented to them.

This endemic malady is supposed to arise from the use of snow-water, or of water impregnated with calcareous earth. Both of these opinions are without foundation. All the inhabitants of districts near the glaciers, drink snow and ice waters without being subject to the disorder; and the common waters of Switzerland, strongly impregnated with calcareous substances, are most salubrious. At Berne, the waters are extremely pure, yet Haller observed that swellings of the throat are not uncommon. De Saussure has assigned another cause, and refers the disorder to the physical features of the mountainous districts in which it prevails. The valleys, he tells us, are surrounded with very high mountains, sheltered from currents of fresh air, and exposed to the direct, and what is worse, the reflected rays of the sun. They are marshy, and hence the atmosphere is humid, close, and oppressive. When to these chorographical causes, he further says, we add the domestic ones, which are also well known to prevail among the poor of these regions,--such as innutritious food, indolence, and uncleanliness, with a predisposition to the disease from an hereditary taint of many generations,--we can sufficiently account for the prevalence of cretinism in such places, and for the most humiliating characters it is ever found to assume.

This specious reasoning, however, is overthrown by observation. In the first instance, this character of the country does not affect its other inhabitants; and secondly, the goitre is found in warm latitudes, and Mungo Park observed it amongst the Africans of Bambara, on the banks of the Niger. Marsden has also seen it at Sumatra. Moreover, this affection is scarcely ever seen in the mountains, but principally prevails in the valleys.

It is more than probable that these ill-favoured creatures belong to a particular race; for we must take care not to confound goitre with cretinism, since goitre is common where cretinism is prevalent. It has been remarked that the offspring of the natives of the Valais who intermarry with persons from the Italian side of the Alps, are more subject to goitres than those born of native parents; and that females who have husbands from the higher Alps, seldom have children affected with this infirmity. It is pretty clear that in these observations, goitre and cretinism are confounded.

That these miserable cagots belong to a particular race of men, most probably accidentally degraded in their transmission from our primitive stock, appears most likely. We have sought the derivation of the several terms of contempt and disgust attached to them in different countries, to which migration may have led their parents. Some writers have traced their descent to the Goths and Vandals, thus chastised for their devastations. Gebelin, Belleforet, and Ramont consider them as descendants of the Visigoths; while Marca, bishop of Couserans, denounces them at once as Jews and Saracens; and other clerical writers have maintained that they are the miserable relicts of the heretic Albigenses who had escaped the holy massacres of 1215; although there did exist cagots in the year 1000, in the abbey of St. Luc, as they are described in a for of Navarre, bearing date 1074, and issued by Ramirez.

These helpless beings have also been considered as the offspring of Bohemians and gipsies. Bishop, or rather Senator Gregoire, maintained that they sprung from the hordes of northern barbarians who overran the south of Europe in the third and fourth centuries. Whatever might have been the origin of these poor creatures, they seem to share that ignominious destiny that has marked various races in different countries. The Agotos of Navarre, the Maragotos of Leon, the Batuecos of Castile, the Wendes of Silesia, are all held in as much contempt as the Parias and the Vaddahs of India. Even in Otaheite a degraded caste was found, from which victims were selected to appease Divine wrath, or propitiate their gods.

The traditional contempt in which certain races are held, a contempt that seems to have affected their physical appearance, may perhaps be traced to the degradation of slavery, that seems to deprive man of all his proud attributes, both in a moral and physical point of view. The effects of tyranny, and the distinctions that oppression has created in the several castes and ranks of mankind, are every where evident. What a difference exists in Scotland between the chieftains and the humbler individuals of their clans!--between the naires of India and their vassals! In France, said Buffon, you may distinguish by their aspect, not only the nobility from the peasantry, but the superior order of nobility from the inferior, these from the citizens, and citizens from the peasants. "The field-slaves in America," observes the enlightened Dr. Smith, "are badly clothed, fed, and lodged, live in small huts in the plantations, remote from the example and society of their superiors. Living by themselves they retain many of the customs and the manners of their ancestors. The domestic servants, on the other hand, who are kept near the persons or employed in the families of their masters, are treated with great lenity, their service is light, they are well fed and clothed. The field-slaves, in consequence of their condition, are slow in changing the aspect and figure of Africa; while the domestic servants have advanced far before them in acquiring the agreeable and regular features, and the expressive countenance, of civilized society. The former are frequently ill-shaped; they preserve in a great degree the African lips, and nose, and hair; their genius is dull, and their countenances sleepy and stupid. The latter are straight and well proportioned; their hair extends to three or four, sometimes even to six or eight inches; the size of their mouth is handsome, their features regular, their capacity good, and their looks animated." Dr. Prichard has also stated that similar changes become visible in the third and fourth generations in the West India islands; and I have seen several negresses in those colonies perfectly beautiful. In the Bahama islands I knew a female slave of the name of Leah, belonging to my late friend Mr. Commissary Brookes, as black as jet, and descended in the third generation from African parents, whose features would have vied in symmetry with the fairest specimen of the Caucasian race.

Let us not, therefore, seek in snow-water or calcareous impregnations for the causes of deformity and degradation in any unfortunate castes of mankind. Their misery may more probably be traced to the iron rod of despotism, or the oppression of bigotry,--influences that mark out races as abject slaves, or objects of Divine wrath, that ought to be scorned by the wealthy and the powerful, and spurned and persecuted by the faithful and the elect; although, when it has served its purposes, priestcraft has held up the cagot, and the leper, and the idiot, as objects of veneration. When the tourist, in his Alpine and Pyrenean excursions, meets a wretched cagot, let him pause and contemplate the offspring of slavery, and reflect on what man is, and on what man might be,--nay, on what man will be.

TEMPERAMENTS.

The different prevalent propensities in various individuals, the development of which appeared to be under the influence of a certain and constitutional organization, have received the name of temperaments; or, rather, this term applies to this peculiar organization of the constitution or idiosyncrasy. The Greek physiologists were the first to classify these peculiarities, or temperamenta,--the naturae of Hippocrates, the mixturae of Galen. They considered organized bodies as an assemblage of elements endowed with different properties, but combined in such manner that their union should constitute a whole, in which none of them should predominate in a healthy condition; but, on the contrary, they were to modify and temper each other, their simultaneous action being directed and controlled by the spirit of life, spiritus. It was the due combination of these elements that constituted a perfect temperament; their aberrancy produced disease of body or of mind.

The ancients divided these elements into cold and hot, dry and moist; from the combination of these principles they classified the fluids of the body. The blood was hot and moist, the bile hot and dry, the phlegm cold and damp, and the melancholy cold and dry. This division led to a further classification; and temperaments, according to the predominance of these elements, were divided into the sanguineous, the bilious, the phlegmatic, and the melancholic.

These supposed radical fluids, influencing the whole animal frame, were dependent upon certain organs for their specific production. The blood was furnished by the heart, the phlegm by the head, the yellow bile by the gall-duct, and the black bile or atrabile,--the principle of melancholy,--by the spleen. Notwithstanding the many revolutions in the doctrine of physiology that have shaken the schools since the days of Hippocrates, this classification of his has remained to a certain degree to the present day, and has laid the foundation of all the systems of temperaments, constitutions, and natural characters, that have at various periods been advanced by philosophers; the only novel introduction in this ancient classification being the nervous temperament, which, after all, is only a modification of the four other categories.

To illustrate the operations of these temperaments, it became necessary to adopt terms expressive of their combination, and temper and humour were adopted. Both are Latin terms; the first, in its original sense, imports mingling, modifying, tempering the four radical fluids, and producing that equilibrious condition of the frame, termed constitution. Humour was derived from the Greek [Greek: chumos], chumos; and its radical sense imported moisture, or fluid of any kind. Hence humid and humidity. This doctrine of fluidity is still applied to many functions that we cannot otherwise describe, and we talk, although in a figurative manner, of the nervous fluid, the vital fluid; and a good humour, a bad humour, a vein of humour, or a humorous vein, are illustrations of peculiar tempers and temperaments,--for temperaments are still distinguished by the same terms applied to them by the ancients, and we describe one man as choleric, or bilious, for choler ([Greek: chole]) means bile; another as being melancholic; a third of a sanguine disposition; and a fourth of a phlegmatic habit. The sanguine, that imports a predominance of the blood, indicated a warm and ardent exuberance of spirits; whereas the phlegmatic, denoting a thin and cold watery fluid, referred to a frigid and spiritless indolence.

We thus see that modern physiology has scarcely advanced this branch of science, for the nervous temperament may be considered as merely a modification of the other ones; and it is more than probable that the old classification will long prevail, notwithstanding the ingenuity of modern hypotheses. Husson divided the temperaments into those that referred to the vascular system, to the nervous system, and to the muscular system, with subdivisions applied to regions and to organs; all these temperaments being either natural and primitive, or acquired. Dr. Thomas, of Paris, has founded his arrangement according to the predominance of the head, chest, or abdomen,--or the mental, circulatory, or digestive organs,--and according to the relative bulk and predominance of these three regions will be the relative energy of the mental, muscular, or abdominal functions. Notwithstanding the ingenuity of these systems, the old arrangement, as I have already observed, is likely to prevail; and as Blumenbach observes, that although this division was founded on an imaginary depravation of the elements of the blood, if made to stand alone it will prove both natural and intelligible.

This division I shall therefore endeavour to illustrate. In the sanguineous temperament the heart and arteries possess a predominant energy; the pulse is strong, frequent and regular; the veins blue, full, and large; the complexion florid, the countenance animated, the stature erect, the muscular forms marked and firm; the hair of a yellow, auburn, or chestnut colour; the nervous impressions acute, the perception quick, the memory retentive, the imagination lively and luxuriant, the disposition passionate but not vindictive, and passion is easily appeased; amorous, and fond of conviviality and good cheer.

In this temperament we find athletic strength and fortitude of mind in resisting the power of external agency, with mental tranquillity in the midst of danger; a calmness arising from a consciousness of power, and from less acuteness of external impressions and mental perceptions. Such a man, when roused to action, will endeavour to surmount every physical difficulty; but he will rarely attain pre-eminence in sciences and the fine arts, which require exquisite sensibility and mobility,--qualities seldom met with in such forms as those described by the poets in Hercules and Ajax.

In the choleric or bilious temperament the liver and biliary organs are as redundant in their power as the sanguineous vessels, and, for the most part, at the expense of the excernent or cellulous and lymphatic system. The pulse is strong and hard, but more frequent than in the sanguineous; the veins superficial and projecting; the sensibility extremely acute and easily excited, with a capacity of pondering for a long time on the same object. The skin is sallow, with a tendency to a yellow tinge; the hair black or dark brown; the body moderately fleshy, the muscles firm and well marked, the figure expressive; the temper of the mind abrupt, impetuous, and violent,--bold in the conception of a project, inflexible in its pursuit, persevering and dauntless in its execution. These are the temperaments that have urged men both to noble and to execrable deeds. Such were Alexander, Brutus, Mahomet, Cromwell, Charles the Twelfth, Robespierre, Napoleon. All these celebrated characters evinced from their earliest youth the ambitious nature of their dispositions; and though circumstances might have checked the development of their predominant passions, it was also to adventitious circumstances that they owed their elevation, and the opportunities of displaying their good or evil qualities. Most of these men were irascible, vindictive, and cruel, and equally susceptible of ardent love and mortal hate. In these temperaments we find a mixed exuberance of blood and bile in a constant struggle for predominance.

The melancholy or atrabilious temperament is of a different character. Here the biliary organs are brought into a constant and a morbid action, while the sanguineous system is weak and irregular. In these gloomy subjects the skin assumes a sallow, unearthly tinge, the pulse is hard and contracted, the digestive functions torpid and irregular, the imagination is gloomy and full of suspicion, and a dark gloom is shed on all around the morbid sufferer, for such he may be called, since the condition under which he labours may be considered one of disease. These subjects are prone to various monomanias; uncertain, fickle, and oftentimes capriciously cruel. Tiberius and Louis the Eleventh are quoted as examples of this temperament. Many melancholic individuals have displayed great genius, and at the same time great depth of thought. Richerand considers Tasso, Pascal, Zimmermann, and Rousseau as illustrating this unhappy disposition.

The fourth temperament is the phlegmatic, lymphatic, pituitous, or watery, for all these terms used by different physiologists are synonymous. Here the proportion of fluids is too considerable for that of the solids; hence the body attains a considerable, unwholesome bulk. The muscles are soft and flaccid, the skin fair and transparent, the hair flaxen or sandy, the pulse weak and slow, all the vital actions are languid, the memory little tenacious, and the attention wavering; an insurmountable indolence prevails; and, averse to mental and corporeal exercise, the far niente is their greatest enjoyment, and a nightcap is preferable to a diadem. These subjects are generally good, easy persons; susceptible of kindly feelings, but of a transient nature. Their mind is generally depraved by effeminacy, and their love is purely animal. They are not courageous; yet they show great tranquillity of mind in moments of danger, and would rather quietly sink than struggle with the waves. If their dwelling was on fire, they would calmly walk out of it, but not exert themselves to put down the conflagration; and, when hereditary power places them at the helm of a state, a wreck of the vessel may be speedily expected, unless the sceptre is wrested from their feeble hands by the choleric or the atrabilious enthusiast.

The fifth, or nervous temperament, as I have already stated, may be considered of a complex nature, as it influences the sanguineous as well as the choleric, the melancholy, and the phlegmatic. In this constitution the sentient system predominates, and there exists a great susceptibility to all external impressions. This temperament is generally acquired, and proceeds from a sedentary life, too great an enjoyment of sensual pleasures, and fanciful ideas brought on by romantic readings and romantic thoughts indulged in hours of idleness. The determination of such individuals is prompt, but uncertain; their affections warm for a while, are selfish and fickle; their sensations are vivid, but leave no impressions. Women, especially when educated in boarding-schools, essentially belong to this class, and are subject to hysterical and convulsive affections that render them a plague to others and a nuisance to themselves. In man the muscles are small, flabby, and wasted. The nervous may possess much vivacity of conception, but no depth of judgment; and, in general, their productions are as morbid as their mind. This condition frequently attends the melancholy temperament, "that wings the soul, and points her to the skies."

Nervous excitability seldom prevails in the sanguineous constitution, where muscular masses are pronounced in athletic forms. Hence the sanguineous are not easily brought into action; but, when once roused, their energies are irresistible. This power is beautifully described by Virgil in the conflict between Entellus and Dares; still are these exertions governed by nervous influence, and the result of the excitability and contractibility of the muscular fibre, termed by Chaussier its myotility.