PHYSIOCRATIC SCHOOL, in political economy, a school in France headed by Ques nay (q.v.) and Gournay (q.v.), who, in opposi tion to the Mercantile System, regarded the production of raw materials, and more espe cially agriculture as the great source of national well-being, and sought to regulate legislation accordingly, laying special stress on the require ment that the revenues of the state ought to be raised by a single tax on land. See POLITICAL ECONOMY.
sought new data in a comparison of the heads of different types and decided the degree of intelligence belonging to each from the facial angle. Lavater was the first to develop a com plete system of physiognomy, which included all the relations between the physical and moral nature of man. (See LAVATER). As the ex pression of the face depends very muds upon the formation of the skull, physiognomy is connected with craniology. Among the chief points in physiognomy, Kant, in his anthropol ogy, reckons —(1) the general formation of the face, particularly in the profile; (2) the individual features of the face; '(3) the mo tions of the face, as far as they have become habitual; also the walk, etc. Kent and others
think that physiognomy can never be elevated to a science. It is, however, a subject of great interest; but the student must be on his guard against a general application of its formulated rules. Even Lavater's system lasted but a short time, though he has collected valuable materials. In the 19th and 20th centuries the subject has been taken up in a more scientific way by physiologists and psychologists and a very extensive literature has come into exist ence. A great deal of the latter, however, especially in recent years, is of the popular scientific type and ought to be used with con siderable care in regard to the correctness of its conclusions.