The laws of health / by W.H. Corfield.

  • Corfield, W. H. (William Henry), 1843-1903
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The laws of health / by W.H. Corfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    six years old, and, ‘after passing his 100th year, died without pain or agony, and like one who falls asleep.’1 § 3. Temperament.— Galen, perhaps the most celebrated of the ancient physicians after Hippocrates, pointed out that there are, as it were, different kinds of healthy people, and he described the characteristics of various groups or classes of individuals to which he gave the name of ‘ temperaments.’ Of these, the most important, and the only ones that are still re- cognised, are the nervous, the sanguine, and the lymphatic temperaments. Temperament may be de- fined as a marked predominance of one of the three general systems of the economy. Persons of a sanguine temperament are robust, with strong cir- culations and respirations and great animal spirits— typically healthy persons who rarely become diseased, and when they do so, soon get well. In the nervous temperament, the nervous system has too marked a predominance over the other systems of the economy. The importance of this consists in the fact that with a pronounced nervous temperament, there is a predisposition to nervous diseases; and, indeed, this condition ought to be looked upon rather as one of a marked tendency to disease, than as a healthy state. The lymphatic or phlegmatic temperament, as it is called, is accompanied by an undue pre- dominance of the lymphatic or absorbent system, and is characterised by a listlessness and inactivity which form a strong contrast to the unceasing rest- 1 Spectator, vol. iii. No. 195. u a