TEMPERAMENT is a term which has been employed in physiology ever since the time of Galen, to designate the certain physical and mental characteristics presented by different individuals. Dr. Todd, in his article on this subject in the Cydopaclia of Anatomy and Physiology, observes that "the temperaments the existence of which seems most consistent with observation, are those admitted by Cullen, namely, the sanguineous and the melancholic, the phlegmatic being a degree or modification of the sanguineous, and the choleric of the melancholic.
Individuals of the sanguineous or sanguine temperament are such, according to Cullen, as have the quantity of fluids in the body large in proportion to the solids; the habit of body soft and plump; the skin smooth, white, and readily sweating on exercise; the hair soft, and generally pale, passing from thence to a red tint; the complexion ruddy; the eyes blue; the bodily strength moderate; and the mind sensible, irritable, cheerfuL and unsteady. In persons of the melancholic temperament, the habit of the body is somewhat hard and meager; the skin and complexion coarse, and of a dun color; the hair hard, curly, and black; the strength considerable; the mind slow, disposed to gravity, caution, and timidity, but tenacious and steady.
Some writers recoginze a nervous temperament, in which the predominating character istic is a great excitability of the nervous system, and an undue predominance of the emotional impulses. This temperament is always associated with the sangniimous or the melancholic. In both sexes, the characteristics of the temperaments arc far less manifest in old ao'e than in earlier life. If it be admitted, as Dr. Todd believes, that a constant connection exists between color and temperament, it obviously follows that the nature of the temperament is determined by certain peculiarities in the physical condition of the organism, The different temperaments often merge so gradually into one another that it is in many cases difficult to decide positively to which variety any special case belongs.