TEMPERAMENT (temperatnnstam,uptlent) is a vague and unsatisfac tory tenn,but it is one which as .1fayoobserves (' Pathology of the human Blind') has been long and generally adopted as a convenient generalisa tion. The word means literally a tempering, or 'mixing together, and may be defined to be a peculiar state of the system common to several individuals, which results from the various proportions in which the elementary parts of the human body are mixed up together, and which gives rise to a tendency to certain phenomena. There is besides, In each individual a further peculiarity of combination, which serves to distinguish his temperament from that of any other person, to whom, however, he may in other respects bear a great resemblance. This individual temperament la called an idiosyncrasy (that is, a peculiar mixing together), and, as the two words are sometimes confounded, it may be useful to point out the distinction between them. All the different systems of organs In the human frame are accurately adjusted to each other, so as to produce one harmonious whole. If the dinpro.
portion be too great, disease 'ensues; but there are many gradations, compatible with health, where yet this disproportion is very observable. The predominance of any particular system of organs modifies the whole economy, impresses striking differences on the results of the organise , don, and has perhaps almost as Efrest an Influence on the moral and Intel lectual as on the physical faculties. This predominance establishes the temperament : it is the cause of it, and constitutes its essence. The ancients paid considerable attention to the subject of temperaments, andpointed out various peculiarities in the constitution and actions of the human body, which have been seen so far to coincide with general observation, that their nomenclature has continued in very general use even to the present day, although the hypothesis on which it was founded is universally discarded. They described four temperaments corresponding to the four qualities of Hippocrates—hot, cold, moist, and dry. It was supposed that there were four corresponding primary components of the human body, namely, blood (area), phlegm or pituita (itail'esi), and the two kinds of bile (al Imo x0Aaf), yellow bile (tart))) XsAi), and black bile, or atrabilia (pl)\alva x0a4); and the preponder ance of one or other of these components in different ivrsons produced the different temperaments. These four primary principles of living bodies were supposed to be compounded of the simple elements or qualities of nature thus : hot and moist produce blood • cold and moist, phlegm or pituita ; hot and dry, yellow bile ; and cold and dry, black bile. Bodies in which blood superabounds are of the sanguine tem perament; if phlegm is in excess, the phlegmatic temperament is developed; if yellow bile, the choleric • and if black bile, the melan cholic or atrabilious temperament. A minute description of the different temperaments is given by Paulus rEginota, Do Ro lib. i. cap. 61. The due admixture of the different qualities was supposed to constitute the beat form of temperament or constitution (*impartial, of which the following is Paulus iEgineta's description : " That man is in the best temperament of body when it is in a medium between all extremes, of leanness and obesity, of softness and hardness, of heat and cold, of moisture and dryness ; and, in a word, who has all the natural and vital energies in a faultless state. His hair also should be neither thick nor thin, neither black nor white. When a boy, his locks should be rather tawny than black, but when an adult, the cou trarywise." (Adam's Trans., i. 60.)
Further information respecting the opinions of the ancients on the subject of the temperaments may be found in the treatise of Hip pocrates, De Nature Hominis,' tom. i., ed. Kiihn ; in Galen's works, ' Do Element's ex Ilippocrate,' tom. De Tempemuicntis; tom. i., De Optima Corporis nostri Constitutions; tom. iv., `DS Sanitate Tuenda,' lib. v., torn. vi, and his 'Ara Medics,' tom. i. ; Oribasius, Synopsis,' lib. v., cap. 43, sq. ; Abtius, Libri Medicinales,' lib. iv., *cap. 53, sq.; Haly Abbas,' Theor.,' lib. i. ; Averroes, ' Collig.,' lib. vi. ; Alsaharavius, Theor. ' ' tract vi.; and Avicenna, 'Cantica.' After the revival of letters, this fourfold division was adopted in its most essential parts by all the most eminent physiologists. Stahl ingeniously adapted it to the modern doctrines of the humeral patho logy ; and even Boerhaave, although he increased the number of the temperaments to eight, and relinquished the erroneous opinions of Hippocrates and Galen respecting the constitution of the blood, yet he still derived the characters of his temperaments from the principles of the humeral pathology, and supposed them to be formed merely by different combinations of the four cardinal qualities. Many late phy siologists have been inclined to doubt whether the external characters associated with the four temperaments are real and constant signs of diversity in bodily structure, and enable us to distinguish the principal varieties of constitution which exist. Several attempts have accord ingly been made to define in a more satisfactory manner the peculiari ties of organisation and the resulting varieties of predisposition, which are chiefly interesting with regard to pathology. Hoffmann and Cullen have, indeed, retained the old division, supposing that the theory of the ancients, as to the peculiarities of constitution, was founded origi nally upon facts, though subsequently combined with an erroneous theory. dialler seems to have been the first who decidedly opposed the ancient doctrine, not only by showing that there was no foundation for the varieties of the temperaments in the peculiar nature of the fluids, but by substituting in their place the vital actions of the system. Darwin proceeded upon the principle of Haller ; and, in conformity with the hypothesis which he adopted of reducing these actions to the four heads of irritation, sensation, volition, and association, he formed four temperaments in which these qualities were supposed respectively to prevail. The only attempt, however, to improve upon the Hippocratic theory and division which has been attended with any degree of success, is that by Dr. Gregory, who, to the four temperaments of the ancients added a fifth, which he called the nervous, and bestowed upon three of the others the new appellations of the tonic, the relaxer(, and muscular temperaments. Dr. Prichard, however, restricts the number to four, and designates them by their original MUMS ; remarking that only four strongly.rnarked diversities of external character present themselves to observation ; that the nervous temperament is not so distinguished ; and that, therefore, as this is an essential part of the original scheme for the distribution of temperaments, the improvement proposed by Dr. Gregory is lame and defective. These four varieties, then, of ex ternal character really indicate, more or lees constantly, well-marked differences of constitution, and, likewise, of morbid predisposition.