On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man: principally with reference to the supply of his wants and the exercise of his intellectual faculties / By John Kidd.

  • John Kidd
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man: principally with reference to the supply of his wants and the exercise of his intellectual faculties / By John Kidd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    traced in the conformation of the latter, it will be at once remembered, is by no means new: and the anecdote of the unfavourable judgment passed on the moral disposition of Socrates, from the character of his countenance, will readily recur to the mind on this occasion. Aristotle has even entered into some details on the forms and shades of colour of the hair and features, and indeed of various other parts of the body, as indicative of particular temperaments or constitutions of the mind.* And it is hardly a question, whether every individual is not accustomed in some degree to decide on character from the features, the colour of the hair, and other external indications, inde- dendently of that expression of the countenance, which rather marks the actually existing state of the mind than the latent disposition of itt But if it be in any degree probable that the connexion between the soul and body may be traced in the conformation of the features or other parts of the body, in a much greater must it be probable that that connexion may be traced in the structure of the brain. Nor does there appear, on the ground either of reason or of reli- gion, any thing objectionable or absurd in the assumption, antece- dently to observation, that the intellectual and moral tendencies of the soul may in a qualified sense be determined, or at least modified, by the peculiar structure of the body: that they are frequently coin- cident with certain peculiarities of corporeal structure is a matter of actual observation. 4 Is it absurd to suppose that, man being a compound of soul and body, the body has been so constructed in each individual as to become a fit arena on which that struggle shall be manifested, which undoubtedly takes place between the conflicting passions of the soul ? For it will not be denied by those to whom this treatise is addressed, that the soul wants not the substance of a corporeal frame for the mere existence of its evil principles, but only for the external mani- * For an exposition of Aristotle’s views on this subject, consult a work of Galen, entitled MEP] TON THS ¥YXHZ HOON, in which the question of the connexion between the faculties of the soul and the conformation of the body is discussed. Ga- len. op. Kahn. vol. iv. p. 768—798. | Shakspeare has several references to indications of personal character, as de- pending on the form of the countenance, &c. Cleopat, Bear’st thou her face in mind ? i’st long, or round ? Messeng. Round, even to faultiness, Cleopat. For the most part too, They are foolish that are so. Her hair, what colour ? Messeng. Brown, madam : and her forehead As low as she would wish it. Antony and CrroratTra, Act IIT. Scene 3. Caliban......... .. We shall lose our time, And all be turn’d to barnacles, or to apes With foreheads villanous low. Tzmprst, Act IV. near the end, Julia. Ay, but her forehead’s low ; and mine’s as high, Two GrenTLemen or Verona, end of Act IV.