The nose and throat in medical history / by Jonathan Wright.

  • Wright, Jonathan, 1860-1928.
Date:
[1898?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nose and throat in medical history / by Jonathan Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/268 (page 5)
    INTRODUCTION. In every age there have been attempts to draw from the appear- ance of the countenance, especially from the shape and size of the nose, prognostications as to the mental and physical attributes of men; but although many are the rules laid down for the guidance of observers, they are of little value; for while doubtless the features tell their story to us occasionally, if we are close observers, in spite even of the modern and scientific treatises of Bell and of Darwin, the expressions are too fugacious and elusive to allow us to gather from them any reliable data as to the characteristics of the individual. No longer ago than 1820 we find it stated in a scientific work* Physiognomy that “a long and pointed nose passes for a sign of sagacity. A oftheNose- short and blunt nose marks a simplicity of mind, easy to deceive and with very little foresight. A little nose, thin and movable, denotes a natural mocker. Large noses are an indication of heav- iness, for they bespeak the lymphatic nature of the complexion. Twisted noses, they say, are a sign of an obliquity of mind; but an aquiline nose, large and muscular, announces force and courage; a flattened nose an inclination to luxury; in fact, it is thought there is a correspondence between the sexual organs and that part of the countenance. ” “Nascitur ex labiis quantum sit virginis antrum Nascitur ex naso quanta sit hasta viri.” This is not a quotation drawn from a literature especially tainted with the ideas of Lavater. On the testimony of Plutarch we learn that the Persians most admired the hawk-nosed type of man as resembling Cyrus, their best beloved king. This saying we find echoed in the sixteenth cen- tury by Riolanf and Laurentius|, the latter declaring, with how much truth I do not know, that the Egyptians in their hieroglyphs use the figure of a nose to designate a man. We may plainly see the type * Diet, des Sciences Medicales,’’ Vol. XXXXII, P. 220. t Opera Omnia,” 1610, Cap. LIU, De Naso. t L'Historie Anatomique” Traduit, par Size, P. 1374; Ed. 1610.