Physiognomy. A practical and scientific treatise

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Preface

To the Eeader:

In sending forth this little work to the public, 1 am impelled thereto by my desire to benefit the masses of mankind in a manner which I believe they very much need. Man's knowledge of himself seems not to have kept pace with the knowledge of his surroundings. It is time, therefore, that there should be an accordance of intelligence between the two, in order that, through Man's comprehension of his powers and possibilities, he may by scientific methods assist in improving his own life, and in perpetuating a race which shall be an improvemeDt on the present one. This can come only through a knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Physiognomy, and Hygienic Law, practically applied. I have endeavored to put this science in as plain and simple language as possible, so that the non-scientific reader should not be confused by terms whose meanings might be ambiguous.

The method of classification used in this system of science is in accord with that observed by all naturalists in their classifications of the lower animals, and is based on the forms of the human organism which are produced by the intermingling of the Yegetative, Thoracic, Muscular, Osseous, and Brain and Nerve systems. These are treated in the order of evolution — from the first evolved to the latest acquired, the true and perfected cerebral system.

" Scientific Physiognomy" gives the most comprehensive theory of the Mind of any work hitherto presented to the

D PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PHYSIOGNOMY.

world. It takes the position that mind inheres in the entire organism, and that the brain is only one source of the mind. This view is supported by Herbert Spencer, George H. Lewes, Ernst Haeckel, Dr. Maudsley, Dr. J. Lauder Lindsay, and all of the most advanced students of Mind and Physiology. In this system this theory has been elaborated and carried to its ultimate by proofs which I believe to be incontrovertible. I would like to give many illustrations of animal life, but the limits of this work forbid. If this system of Physiognomy find a welcome in the minds of the people, I shall be encouraged to give to the world a volume of more extended research.

My hearty thanks are due to the engraver, Mr. Durbin Yan Vleck, for his artistic and intelligent treatment of the wood-cuts in this volume.

The faculties of Secretiveness, Force, and Resistance were inadvertently enumerated on page 26 among those of the Vegetative division. Their proper place is in the Architectural division.

Earnest and religious regard for the welfare of humanity has impelled the writing of these ideas. With the hope that they may lead to a correct knowledge of Man, and that this knowledge may conduce to his welfare, physically, morally, intellectually, and religiously,

I am, sincerely, your friend,

The Author.

PHYSIOGNOMY

Introduction

If the most learned man of the twelfth century were to return to earth and become cognizant of our advance in the sciences and industrial arts, he would doubtless believe, at first, that he was in the midst of works of magic more wonderful and powerful by far than the mysterious and occult operations of the Magi of his own age. He would note the use of natural forces turned to the economies of life by ingenious and complicated machinery; he would be shown the wonders of steam navigation, of the art of printing, of electricity in its numerous developments and uses, of the tele graph and the telephone, together with the telescopic and microscopic discoveries which astonish even this progressed age; the knowledge of the laws of sound, motion, light, and color, which this epoch has evolved, would unfold to his senses a world of realities as new to his mind as if he, in verity, were transported to quite another planet than the one which had been his former habitation. After taking note of all our increased knowledge of Science in its various departments, and after examining our museums and institutions of learning, if he were to ask, "What do you now know of Man? — of his powers and properties?" what reply could we make? We might answer that we understand the circulation 2 of the blood, a little about the nervous system, somewhat of the process of digestion; that we know the number of the bones and have named them, and also the action of the muscles; that we are in a state of uncertainty as to the function of the brain; that we know very little of the prevention of disease, much less about its cure, and nothing at all as to the meaning of his physiognomy. What think you would be his opinion of our progress in useful knowledge? Surely, he would conclude that we had vexed our minds with many things that could be dispensed with, and had neglected the most useful of them all. The knowledge of Man, and how to improve his capacities, how to protect his bodily powers, how to prevent and remedy the diseases which assail him, is surely of more importance than many of the studies upon which valuable time has been spent without advancing the knowledge of Man one step. All through the ages of which we have any recorded history we find inklings of a dawning perception of Physiognomy.

The writings of Moses show him to have been a profound student of human nature and possessed of a power to read and understand countenances and features. His knowledge of sanitary law, in regard to food and diet, and the protection of the body, and the success attending the application of these laws, place him even beyond the Sanitarians of to-day. Among the earliest Greek writers, Aristotle, Plato, and Galen may be named as having written and taught Physiognomy. Hippocrates also formulated a system based upon the several colors of the human complexion. This classification has passed down to the present day, and has been accepted by naturalists in its application to man, while at the same time, with singular inconsistency, the lower animal kingdom has been classified on the basis of form; and correctly so, as color is an effect, not a cause; it is dependent on climate, food, habit, and other accidental surroundings. Even Phrenologists, who ought to know better (since their researches extend widely among the animal kingdom), have retained the classification which Hippocrates set up. The

INTRODUCTION. 11

differences observable in the human family he denominated Temperaments — a word which has no intelligent application even to the false basis upon which the old Greek physician founded his system, long before the circulation of blood was discovered by Harvey, and before the functions of the liver, heart, and brain were at all understood.

Each age has added its contributions to our knowledge of Physiognomy, and if these contributions have not given us heretofore a correct system, at once practical and scientific, they have maintained an interest and a belief in this science. This interest and belief have served as a beacon-light, which has flashed far down the age's made brilliant by the works of the most renowned philosophers and literates. Among the Grecians, Aristotle wrote extensively on this subject. Pliny, Cicero, and others of ancient Borne, found this science worthy of their consideration; while, later in the advancing centuries, we find Petrus d'Abbano lecturing on Physignomy before the students of the University of Paris. After him followed the renowned Avicenna, Averroes, Michael Scott, and the Italian sculptor and naturalist, J. Baptista Porta, the discoverer of the camera obscura. Later still, many German, French, English, and American observers left their writings among us to be added to and built upon. Lavater, in 1801, wrote numerous volumes on the subject, copiously illustrated, in which he had the assistance of some of the best artists in Europe. It is through his works, and from his associations, that this science is best known to modern students. His purity of life and high position (he having been an eloquent clergyman, pastor of St. Peter's Church at Zurich) placed Physiognomy on a footing of credibility. His works are what he named them — "Fragments" — merely, without system and largely impractical. His efforts, like those of his predecessors, have assisted in continuing the belief and interest in the science.

Prominent among the German and French observers and writers are the eminent Biumenbach, Spurzheim, Camper, Bichat, Broussais, and De la Sarthe; among the English,

Sir Charles Bell and Alexander Walker; and among Americans, James W. Redfield. In 1817, Dr. John Crosse published from the University Press, at Glasgow, a series of lectures on Physiognomy which he had delivered, setting forth a system which contains practical knowledge, susceptible of proof and capable of application by any ordinary observer. The latest work on Physiognomy, written by Dr. J. Simms, of New York, entitled "Nature's Revelations of Character," is the first that has given to the world a system based upon a natural classification, and corresponding to the other departments of Natural Science. His system, as is this, is based upon form, and, viewed from that standpoint, is unassailable; it should be in the hands of every thinking person. Without pretending to treat this science as exhaustively in regard to principles as Dr. Simms has done, I claim to have discovered and elaborated some laws which seem to have escaped his penetrating mind, and also to have carried it one step beyond his exposition. Professor Joseph Le Conte, of the University of California, in a recent able article in the "Popular Science Monthly," describing the advance of science, says:

"In all sciences, but especially in the higher and more complex departments, there are three distinct stages of advance. The first consists in the observation, collection, and arrangement of facts — Descriptive Science. The second is the reduction of these to formal laws — Formal Science. Thus far the science is independent of all other sciences. The third is the reference of these laws to the more general laws of a more fundamental science — in the hierarchy as their cause — Causal Science. It is this last change only which necessarily follows the order indicated above. Its effect is always to give great impulse to scientific advance; for then only does it take on the highest scientific form, then only does it become one of the hierarchy of sciences, and receive the aid of all. Thus, to illustrate, Tycho Brahe laboriously gathered and collated a vast number of facts concerning planetary motions — Descriptive Astronomy. Kepler reduced

INTRODUCTION. 13

these to the three great and beautiful laws known by his name — Formal Astronomy. But it was reserved for Newton, by means of the theory of gravitation, to explain the Keplerian laws by referring them to the more general and more fundamental laws of mechanics as their cause, and thus he became the founder of Physical and Causal Astronomy. In other words, Astronomy was at first a separate science, based on its own facts. Newton connected it with. Mechanics, and thus made it one of the hierarchy. From that time, Astronomy advanced with increased rapidity and certainty. Astronomy first rose as a beautiful shaft, unconnected and unsupported, except on its own pedestal. In the meantime, however, another more solid and central shaft had grown up under the hands of many builders; viz., Mechanics. Newton connected the astronomical shaft with the central column of mechanics, and thus formed a more solid basis for a yet higher shaft."

This description truthfully and beautifully shows the progress of scientific research. The system which this work presents to the reader has advanced to the third stage of progression. It presents a description of facts in relation to the human organism which have been observed and collected; it reduces these facts to laws; and, lastly, shows the correspondence of this science to the general and fundamental laws which underlie all matter — viz., those of Chemistry, Architecture, and Mathematics. The sum of all human action is based on these three fundamental principles of Nature, and Man's organism illustrates 'the influence of these laws. I would like to see the facts contained in this little work in the hands of all who love their kind, and who desire its elevation by scientific methods. In the years to come, I do not doubt that more ample knowledge of Physiognomy will be disseminated by greater minds, with better opportunities of observation than have fallen to me. It would seem a very appropriate time for the spreading of knowledge of Man now that so much is known of his environment, and while so many hitherto unknown applications of the forces and substances of Nature are coming daily to light that are immediately connected with his welfare. Earnest and religious regard for the advance of mankind to grander heights of purity and nobility of life, added to the belief that nothing short of the knowledge of scientific laws and their application can regenerate the human race, has impelled the writing of these ideas.

Chapter I. Peimitive Okigin And Development Oe Man

"Looked at through a single science, life is unintelligible ; for the sciences, separately taken, are but like the constituent portions of a telescope — we can only see properly by connecting them." — Gbindon.

Tracing Man to his origin, the Monera, or, as some naturalists claim, the Amoeba, we find entering into his constitution four essential elements, or primal components. These, in the language of chemistry, are called nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. These elements are first exhibited in the air and water; they are taken up by plants, and upon these elements all vegetable life subsists. All organized life proceeds from the same elementary powers: First, plant life; then insect organisms; after these, reptiles, fishes, birds, beasts, and, last of all, Man.

In every one of the varied and various organisms the same universal principles prevail; very little of any other elements enter into the composition of any of these bodies. The different phenomena are produced only by difference in proportion, by chemical action and chemical changes. The plants suck up through the roots the nourishment needed to give them form, color, and stability. The leaves also assist in their nourishment by taking up through their innumerable pores, or mouths, the elements which they require from the air. One hundred and twenty thousand of these inhalers have been counted on one small leaf by the aid of the microscope.* Animals feed upon the plants, and the same elements

=* Johnston's "Chemistry of Common Life."

still reside in their organisms. The form is changed, it is true; and one might suppose that the animal form was composed of entirely different materials from those which create and nourish the plant; but it is not so. The very same elements are there; there is no addition of other principles; they have simply assumed different forms through the power of chemical action. The same activities which formed the Moneron, or germ-cell, of all organic life continue the process of chemical action, but in a more complex manner, to form the animal organism, as well as all the intervening grades of organic life. Chemical analysis proves this truth. The elements of plant life and animal life are identical, differing only in proportion. These elements take on other forms, and are called by other names, according to the location in which they are found and the organism in which they reside or create. Yet the chemist never loses sight of them, and, no matter what metamorphoses take place, he knows that they are sure to appear, and identifies them regardless of the forms which they assume.

Before these elements can become human organisms, they must pass through many complex and subtile chemical changes. They must have had an existence in minerals, air, and water. After this stage, they pass into plant, insect, and fish life; later on, into the various organized birds and beasts; these, in turn, feed upon and increase by the help of plants and water; and upon plants, beasts, and water, Man is sustained.

This, in brief, is the progress of Man from his primitive creation, as a simple germ or cell. From this starting-point emanates all organized life, coming up through gradational forms until the physical man is reached, and his wondrous mentality exhibited by the aid of his physical phenomena.

What is mind? What are mental operations? These are questions which the wisest minds of all ages have vainly tried to solve. Not until the present epoch have we found the instrumentalities essential to their solution. The microscope, the spectroscope, the telescope, and chemistry, together

PRIMITIVE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MAN. 17

with our knowledge of the laws of molecular motion and of the other forces of Nature, have gone far toward unraveling what has always been both a wonder and a mystery; and although the ultimate of knowledge in the direction of mind and mental action has not been reached, yet we have learned enough to know that all mental phenomena are dependent upon the differentiated physical organisms for their demonstration, and that the same four primal elements contribute directly to the production of all mental action as well as physical power. In the beginning of organized matter, these elements were called oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen; in the blood and tissues of man they are found after many transmutations, and are then known as flbrine, albumen, caseine, and water. By continued physical and mental labor on the part of man these elements are exhausted, but are replenished by a due admixture of animal, vegetable, and marine foods. The manner of their use, and how they conduce to the upbuilding of the hunian organism, will be shown in the chapter on Hygiene.

The first use which organized mind makes of its newly acquired powers which a progressive evolution has bestowed upon it (as is first shown in animal life) is to commence recreation on a small scale, out of the materials which are found in abundance suited to the purposes of its peculiar phase of development. The manifestations of constructive energy, as shown by the spider family, for instance, are remarkable. Here we find no brain proper; it is true there is a nervous system in simple form. Its mental energy, for I cannot name it less, must proceed from the power and intelligence which inheres in this nervous system, for it is shown that in the human organism nerve and brain matter are identical; hence, we must conclude that the peculiar form of nerve matter which is found in organisms that have no brain proper is the source and seat of intelligence in such bodies, and that their peculiar forms of mental and constructive energy proceed from the power of their nervous system, as well as from such organs as are developed in them. In support of this theory, let me quote from Prof. Grimes. He says: "The very lowest animal life that can be produced is the amoeba, a mere minute mass of jelly. It cannot be said to have any particular permanent form, but it has the ability to assume almost any imaginable shape, according to circumstances. It can protrude a portion of itself forward in the form of a limb; it can thus produce a dozen limbs; it can spread itself out into a thin sheet, and envelop and absorb what it wants, and then change its form again.

This creature occasionally manifests a degree of mechanical skill not surpassed by the beaver, and not even equaled by civilized man. We learn an important lesson here, and that is, that Nature is capable of performing superior mental operations without any special organs that can be perceived. Next, observe the spider. He has nerves, but no cerebrum or cerebellum, no thalamus, no striatum; he has something that appears to be analogous to the human oblongata, and that is the nearest approach to a brain; yet he surpasses the beaver in mechanical skill, the fox in cunning, the monkey in dexterity, and the tiger in malicious cruelty. He surpasses all animals that have brain, excepting man. What is the explanation? The answer is obvious. The spider has the organs of his mental faculties, call them by what name you will, located somewhere in his body, in his nerves, or in his ganglionic masses. He has no brains; no animal has them except fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Fishes have what is called a brain, but it is a mere bud of the anterior lobe of a brain, and that only. There is not in all Nature a more interesting lesson than that which is conveyed by a comparison of the animals that have no proper brains with the fishes (the lowest of those that have them), and then a comparison of these with the next class above them, and then again with the birds that are one step higher still, and then the birds with some of the lowest animals of the next higher class, the mammals, such as porpoises and rabbits; then higher mammals — cats, foxes, dogs, horses, elephants, apes, man."

Dr. M. Foster, an able and recent writer on Physiology,

PRIMITIVE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MAN. 19

claims that the amoeba is possessed of the following powers and functions: he says that "it is contractile; it is irritable and automatic; it is receptive and assimilative; it is metabolic and secretory; it is respiratory and reproductive." And yet the microscope fails to find a simple nervous system in this animal! The lowest organism in which has been found a simple nervous system is the turbellaria. This organism, according to Haeckel, is the sixth in progressive creation, starting from the monera. It has also organs of secretion (kidneys) and of generation. According to my theory, and the system of progressive growth which I set forth in this work, man represents, in his unfoldment and progress from his lowest development as an embryo, the same order as is observed in the primitive growths or primeval organisms. This system of Physiognomy also finds in the first or lowest division of the human organism the organs of reproduction and the first organs of secretion — viz., the kidneys. The coincidence would be remarkable did not Nature abound in just such corroborations of her unity of action and method. These methods are as potential in the development of man as in the development of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and outwork in the same manner. "The laws of inheritance and adaptation" are the prime factors in making man what he is. After taking into account man's inherited quality, the remainder of his individuality is the result of his environment; that is to say, the soil upon which he lives and from which he derives his food, the air which he inhales, the water which he drinks, the climate which he dwells in, and the quality of mentality which surrounds him.

If the soil upon which is grown his food, his plants, grains, fruits, and cattle,, holds in excess certain mineral compounds, then all of his food, as well as himself, will derive their character (aside from their inherited quality) from these sources. He will take his color, his mental powers, his moral and his physical qualities from these surroundings and conditions; and thus man is constantly the subject of manifold laws and processes ever moulding and fashioning his character, his form, color, quality, and all his personality. As the study of the origin and science of color progresses, we shall find that it plays a most important part in our lives and in the history of our planet. Every mineral has its own color; from these mineral compounds the plants, flowers, and fruits get their beautiful dyes. Taken up from the soil, air, and water, these dyes assist in forming character; and by the colors of plants, animals, and man, much of their character is discerned. In the early geologic periods, while yet the whole earth was in a moist and heated condition, the colors of the flora must have been gorgeous in the extreme; but as it approached a cooler condition, the minerals of which the crust of the earth is composed must have parted with some of their coloring power, for we observe that all of the races of plants, animals, and men in the temperate and frigid zones are lighter and have less coloring matter in their composition. As the people in the torrid zone are richer in color, so, as we approach the poles, all Nature is destitute of deep shades. As the earth continues to cool, all Nature, reasoning from analogy, will continue to part with its color, until the inhabitants of our planet will possibly assume the pallor and transparency which is usually ascribed to ghosts and spirits. Never having seen a spirit, I cannot vouch for their complexion, but the prevalent idea is that they are pale and exceedingly diaphanous. Advance in the knowledge of the origin and character of color has been most wonderful in this era. As the intense colors in visible Nature lessened, discoveries of colors hidden in many hitherto unknown substances have been made, and have been applied to remove disease and to the industrial arts in ways never before attempted. The basic color of nearly every mineral has been traced through the medium of chemistry and the spectrum analysis, and the direct influence of the colors of the various plants, flowers, and minerals used in remedies has been demonstrated. This may strike the reader as a singular statement, but why should not color, which is palpable to our sight, be as potent in its influence upon our organism as electricity, the ethers, and

PRIMITIVE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MAN. 21

other fine forces which are almost imperceptible ? What is color for? — to please the eye merely? I have never found anything in Nature that did not serve a two-fold purpose, at least; such is the wonderful economy of Nature.

Every age has its own peculiar form of mental activity, progress, and culmination, corresponding to the growth of man's nature. The Philosophical Age of Greece — the age of Plato, Xenocrates, Polemon, Zeno, and Aristotle — made its impress on the character of the men of that era. Its influence did. not end there. All through the Dark Ages, great minds — the Galileo?, the Bacons, the Brunos, and others — who could not be crushed through fear of the Church, of superstition, or of death, were stimulated to further philosophical and scientific inquiry by the writings of those old Greek thinkers. Thus, modern Science, following naturally its predecessor, Philosophy, was given to the world. In the order of natural mental progression, inquiry and reason always precede the discovery of laws and principles. Hence, we find during the later years of those "ages," rendered "dark" by the despotism of Ecclesiastic! sra, a revival of Philosophy, which took a practical direction (the result, mainly, of the activity of Northern minds, aided largely by the inventions which speculation and experiment had produced), and which resulted in the birth of modern Science.

In the days of Phidias and Praxiteles, we had probably the nearest approach to perfection in sculpture that the world will ever witness. In the age of Bubens, Titian, Michael Angelo, and Guido-Beni, the height of configuration and coloring as an art, purely, was reached. The Middle or Dark Ages gave us the acme of superstition and religious fervor, which have produced a natural reaction in the present epoch of reality and science. This has achieved a marvelous number of discoveries and practical inventions.

We are, as yet, upon the threshold; the culmination in this direction has not been reached. The wonders which coming years may disclose can neither be imagined nor depicted. And thus we see that Evolution brings first one side and

PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PHYSIOGNOMY.

then another of Man's wonderful mentality face to face with the resources which have been hidden away in Nature's great storehouse, awaiting, seemingly, the time when Man's progressed nature shall demand them.

Chapter II. Basic Principles Of Scientific Physiognomy

Standing at the apex of all creation is Man, the very epitome, sublimification, and essence of creative energy; what more natural than that in this high and complex organization should be found, in combination, all of the components of what may be termed the lower creations?

Man is literally made up of the "dust of the earth;" considered as a chemical compound, iu Man will be found, made into solid bone, muscle, brain, blood, and tissue, not only the "dust of the earth," but also nearly all the elements contained in the earth. In his composition will be found oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, calcium, iron, sodium, chlorine, sulphur,

The Three Geand Divisions of the Face. 1, Chemical. 2, Architectural. 3, Mathematical.

phosphorus, potassium, and a small amount of other minerals.

In the face of Man will be found, by dividing it into three grand divisions, the signs of character representing the three basilar principles underlying all matter, as well as Man's own organism; viz., Chemistry, Architecture, and Mathematics.

If one examines a grain of sand, and enters into an analysis of its constituents, he finds that it has, first, chemical properties — so much of one kind of element, another particle of some other sort; perhaps several other elements enter into its constitution. These various elements have an affinity for each other, and harmonize in their combination; this is the power which binds them in one, and forms them into a chemical compound.

Upon further examination, it will be found to possess a definite form. In the case of crystals of the various minerals, this form is always defined by law, and the mineralogist recognizes each object by its form. This natural Law of Shaping of all objects, both animate and inanimate, is an illustration of Architectural Law.