Nature's revelations of character, or, The mental, moral and volitive dispositions of mankind, as manifested in the human form and countenance / by Joseph Simms.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nature's revelations of character, or, The mental, moral and volitive dispositions of mankind, as manifested in the human form and countenance / by Joseph Simms. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    CONTENTS. Introduction. The term Physiognomy—Earliest Conditions of the Science—Its Progress— Greek Philosophers —Roman Authors—Middle Ages—Authors of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries—Lavater—Act against Physiognomists in George the Second’s Reign—Surnames taken from Physiognomical Peculiarities—Interest Attaching to the Science—Every Variation of Bodily Form or Colour corresponds to some Mental Characteristic— The Variety contributes to Unity—Causes of Physiological Phenomena —Development in an Infant—Effects of Various Tempers on Feature— Physiognomy, a sure and cheap Science, slightly understood by all, thoroughly to few—Its Benefits—Importance to the Merchant—The Clever Shopman instinctively a Physiognomist—how it leads him to act towards various customers—Hairdressers—Anecdote of a Clever Shopman—Universal Application of the Science—Evil Results from Ignoring it—The Pleasure it Affords—The Moral Results of its Culti- vation, 3-38 Forms op the Human Body. Question of Human Responsibility—Ancient Classification—Author’s Clas- sification and Nomenclature: Abdominal Form; Thoracic; Muscular and Fibrous; Osseous or Bony; Brain and Nerve—Possibility of Change from one to the other, 39-44 The Abdominal Form. The Facts of Nature Obvious, but the Reasons Obscure—Earliest Geolo- gical Animals Abdominal—so were the Earliest Men—Characteristics of the Abdominal Form Its Disadvantages—Anecdote—Food Indisposes to Mental Activity—How to Cultivate the Abdominal Tendency, or Repress it, 45,53 The Thoracic Form. The Thorax, What—Signs of the Thoracic —Mountainous Regions Favour- able to it, and why—Its Advantages and Disadvantages, . 54-59 The Muscular and Fibrous Form. Rot Dependent on Size-All Art is an Imitation of Nature—Two Sets of Muscles —Exercise the Great Developer—Dr. Windsliip—Pure Air