PHYSIOGNOMY, a term which denotes a supposed science for the "discovery of the disposition of the mind by the linea ments of the body" (Bacon); is also used colloquially as a syno nym for the face or outward appearance, being variously spelled by the old writers.
Physiognomy was regarded by those who cultivated it as a two fold science: (I) a mode of discriminating character by the out ward appearance, and ( 2) a method of divination from form and feature. On account of the abuses of the latter aspect of the subject its practice was forbidden by the English law. By the act of parliament 17 George II. c. 5 (1743) all persons pretending to have skill in physiognomy were deemed rogues and vagabonds, and were liable to be publicly whipped, or sent to the house of correction until next sessions. The pursuit thus stigmatized as unlawful is one of great antiquity: in ancient times physiognomy was a profession.
The first systematic treatise which has come down to us is that attributed to Aristotle, in which he devotes six chapters to the consideration of the method of study, the general signs of char acter, the particular appearances characteristic of the dispositions, of strength and weakness, of genius and stupidity, of timidity, im pudence, anger and their opposites, etc. Then he studies the physiognomy of the sexes, and the characters derived from the different features, and from colour, hair, body, limbs, gait and voice. He compares the varieties of mankind to animals, the male to the lion, the female to the leopard. The general character of the work may be gathered from the following specimen. While discussing noses, he says that those with thick bulbous ends belong to persons who are insensitive, swinish ; sharp-tipped belong to the irascible, those easily provoked, like dogs; rounded, large, obtuse noses to the magnanimous, the lion-like ; slender hooked noses to the eagle-like, the noble but grasping; round-tipped retrousse noses to the luxurious, like barndoor fowl; noses with a very slight notch at the root belong to the impudent, the crow-like ; while snub noses belong to persons of luxurious habits, whom he compares to deer; open nostrils are signs of passion, etc.
While the earlier classical physiognomy was chiefly descriptive, the later mediaeval authors particularly developed the predictive and astrological side, their treatises often digressing into chiro mancy, onychomancy, clidomancy, podoscopy, spasmatomancy and other branches of prophetic folk-lore and magic.
Along with the medical science of the period the Arabians con tributed to the literature of physiognomy; notably 'Ali b. Ragel, Rhazes and Averroes. Avicenna also makes some acute physiog nomical remarks in his De animalibus, which was translated by Michael Scot about 127o. Among mediaeval writers Albertus Mag nus (born 1205) devotes much of the second section of his De animalibus to physiognomy. The famous sage of Balwearie Michael Scot, while court astrologer to the emperor Frederick II_ wrote his treatise De hominis phisiognomia, much of which is physiological and of curious interest. It was probably composed about 1272, but not printed until 1477. This was the first printed work on the subject.
The 16th century was rich in publications on physiognomy. Treatises were published, among others, by John de Indagine, Cocles, Andreas Corvus, Michael Blondus, Janus Cornaro, Anselm Douxciel, Pompeius Ronnseus, Gratarolus, Lucas Gauricus, Tri cassus, Cardanus, Taisnierus, Magnus Hund, Rothman, Johannes Padovanus, and, greatest of all, Giambattista della Porta. The earliest English works were anonymous : On the Art of Foretelling Future Events by Inspection of the Hand (1504), and A Pleasant Introduction to the Art of Chiromancie and Physiognomie (1588). Dr. Thomas Hill's work, The Contemplation of Mankynde, con tayning a singular Discourse after the Art of Physiognomie, pub lished in 1571, is a quaintly written adaptation from the Italian authors of the day.