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CHAP. 114.—SIGNS OF VITALITY AND OF THE MORAL DISPOSITION OF MAN, FROM THE LIMBS.

I am greatly surprised that Aristotle has not only believed, but has even committed it to writing, that there are in the human body certain prognostics of the duration of life. Although I am quite convinced of the utter futility of these remarks, and am of opinion that they ought not to be published without hesitation, for fear lest each person might be anxiously looking out for these prognostics in his own person, I shall still make some slight mention of the subject, seeing that so learned a man as Aristotle did not treat it with contempt. He has set down the following as indications of a short life—few teeth, very long fingers, a leaden colour, and numerous broken lines in the palm of the hand. On the other hand, he looks upon the following as prognostics of a long life—stooping in the shoulders, one or two long unbroken lines in the hand, a greater num- ber than two-and-thirty teeth, and large ears. He does not, I imagine, require that all these symptoms should unite in one person, but looks upon them as individually significant: in my opinion, however, they are utterly frivolous, all of them, although they obtain currency among the vulgar. Our own writer, Trogus, has in a similar manner set down the physiognomy as indicative of the moral disposition; one of the very gravest of the Roman authors, whose own1 words I will here subjoin:—

"Where the forehead is broad, it is significant of a dull and sluggish understanding beneath; and where it is small, it in- dicates an unsteady disposition. A rounded forehead denotes an irascible temper, it seeming as though the swelling anger had left its traces there. Where the eye-brows are extended in one straight line, they denote effeminacy in the owner, and when they are bent downwards towards the nose, an austere disposition. On the other hand, when the eye-brows are bent towards the temples, they are indicative of a sarcastic disposition; but when they lie very low, they denote malice and envy. Long eyes are significant of a spiteful, malicious nature and where the corners of the eyes next the nose are fleshy, it is a sign also of a wicked disposition. If the white of the eye is large, it bears tokens of impudence, while those who are incessantly closing the eyelids are inconstant. Largeness of

1 But they are borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 13. i. c. 9.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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