In looking at the physical conditions of the best-marked examples of the sanguine and melancholic temperaments, it is im portant to ascertain whether any one pro perty or quality stands out more prominently than the rest, which might seem to give to the whole economy of the individuals its peculiar cast. It appears to me that there is no single physical property which is so closely associated with difference of temperament as variety in the quantity, and perhaps also in the kind, of colouring matter or pigment, evinced by the colour of the hair and skin, and influ encing also the colour of the eyes, and of the blood, and of the nervous centres.
Individuals of the melancholic temperament exhibit in their various tissues a considerable amount of pigment, as shown by the dark co lour, generally black, of the hair and eyes, while on the other hand those of the san guine temperament are deficient in colour, having light hair, blue or grey eyes, and fair or white skins. Observations are yet wanting, in sufficient number, to determine the relative amount of colouring matter in the blood of individuals of each of these temperaments, or to ascertain whether it is characterised by any peculiar chemical qualities. It seems highly probable that the amount and kind of colouring matter in the skin, hair, and eyes, as well as of that in some of the secretions, as bile, urine, &c. is influenced by the amount and kind of the hmatine.
The xanthous and leucous races of man in habiting for the most part cold or temperate climates, afford the most numerous examples of the sanguine temperament, while the me lano-comous or dark races found chiefly in warm climates are mostly of the melancholic temperament. And those individuals of the xanthous and leucous races, which in physical characters approach most nearly to the dark races, as by the existence of a large quantity of dark pigment in their tegumentary tissues, are of the melancholic temperament, whilst the light-coloured members of the xanthous races are prone to exhibit the characters of the sanguine temperament.
If it be admitted that a constant connection exists between colour and temperament, as I think is sufficiently obvious, it would follow that the nature of the temperament is deter mined by certain peculiarities in the physical condition of the frame. These peculiarities react to a certain extent upon the mind, and more or less aid or clog its workings, but cer tain powers and modes of action of the mind are by no means so constantly associated with certain states of body, as to connect the men tal and bodily states as cause and effect. It is true that the sanguine temperament is ge nerally accompanied by a mind exhibiting certain characters, but the exceptions to this are so numerous that we cannot assign the corporeal state as the cause of the mental nor vice versd. Bodily peculiarities are in finitely more frequently inherited than mental, — the powers and activity of the mind are greatly determined by education and training ; but those qualities of body which give a cha racter to its temperament are born with it ; and although they may be modified by exter nal influences, they are yet at all times suf ficiently distinct to prove them to be inherent physical properties of the entire organism.
At the same time it seems reasonable to admit that the mind has its temperaments, as the body has, and in a great measure inde pendently, and the terms, sanguine, melan cholic, phlegmatic, and choleric, may be severally applied to them, according as the emotions and feelings, and the intellectual actions vary in their modes and degrees of developement, and in their rate of working.
(R. B. Todd.)