I am also acquainted with two dissertations on the same subject, one by Samuel Quelmaltz, De Prosoposcopiâ Medicâ. Leipzig 1748; and the other by the famous Stahl-De facie morborum indice, seu morborum æstimatione ex facie. Halle 1700.

But the work which is most perfect, full, and deserving of attention, is Thoma Fieni philosophi ac medici præstantissimi Semeiotice, sive de signis medicis. Lugduni 1664. Yet this acute writer has scarcely noticed the prognostics of disease from the figure of the body, but has, like others, been much more attentive to the diagnostics.

V.

NATIONAL PHYSIOG NOMY.

A.

MY OWN REMARKS.

THAT there is national physiognomy, as well as national character, is undeniable. Whoever doubts of this can never have observed men of different nations, nor have compared the inhabitants of the extreme confines of any two. Compare a Negro and an Englishman, a native of Lapland and an Italian, a Frenchman and an inhabitant of Terra del Fuego. Examine their forms, countenances, characters, and minds. Their difference will be easily seen, though it will, sometimes, be very difficult to describe scientifically.

It is probable we shall discover what is national in the countenance better from the sight of an individual, at first, than of a whole people; at least, so I imagine, from my own experience. Individual countenances discover more the characteristics of a whole nation, than a whole nation does

that which is national in individuals. The following infinitely little is what I have hitherto observed, from the foreigners with whom I have conversed, and whom I have noticed, concerning national character.

The French I am least able to characterize. They have no traits so bold as the English, nor so minute as the Germans. I know them chiefly by their teeth, and their laugh. The Italians I discover by the nose, small eyes, and projecting chin. The English, by their foreheads, and eyebrows. The Dutch, by the rotundity of the head, and the weakness of the hair. The Germans, by the angles and wrinkles, round the eyes, and in the cheeks. The Russians, by the snub nose, and their light-coloured, or black hair. I shall now say a word concerning Englishmen, in particular. Englishmen have the shortest, and best arched, foreheads; that is to say, they are arched only upward; and, toward the eyebrows, either gently decline, or are rectilinear. They very seldom have pointed, but often round, full, medullary noses. The Quakers and Moravians excepted, who, wherever they are found, are generally thin-lipped, Englishmen have large, well defined, beautifully curved, lips; they have also a round, full, chin; but they

are peculiarly distinguished by the eyebrows and eyes, which are strong, open, liberal, and stedfast. The outline of their countenances is, in general, great, and they never have those numerous, infinitely minute, traits, angles, and wrinkles, by which the Germans are so especially distinguished. Their complexion is fairer than that of the Germans.

All English women whom I have known personally, or by portrait, appear to be composed of marrow and nerve. They are inclined to be tall, slender, soft, and as distant from all that is harsh, rigorous, or stubborn, as heaven is from earth.

The Swiss, generally, have no common physiognomy, or national character, the aspect of fidelity excepted. They are as different from each other as nations the most remote. The French Swiss peasant is as distinct as possible from the peasant of Appenzel. It may be that the eye of a foreigner would better discover the general character of the nation, and in what it differs from the French or German, than that of the native.

In each canton of Switzerland I find characteristic varieties. The inhabitant of Zurich, for instance, is middle sized, more frequently meagre than corpulent, but usually one or the other. They seldom have ardent

eyes, or large, small noses; the outline is not, often, either grand or minute. The men are seldom handsome, though the youth are incomparably so; but they soon alter. The people of Berne are tall, strait, fair, pliable, and firm; and are most distinguishable by their upper teeth, which are white, regular, and easily to be seen. The inhabitants of Basle (or Basil) are more rotund, full, and tense of countenance, the complexion tinged with yellow, and the lips open and flaccid. Those of Schaffhausen are hard boned. Their eyes are seldom sunken, but are generally prominent. The sides of the forehead diverge over the temples; the cheeks fleshy, and the mouth wide and open. They are commonly stronger built than the people of Zurich, though, in the canton of Zurich, there is scarcely a village in which the inhabitants do not differ from those of the neighbouring village, without attending to dress, which, notwithstanding, is also physiognomonical.

Round Wädenschweil and Oberreid, I have seen many handsome, broad-shouldered, strong, burden-bearing men.--At Weiningen, two leagues from Zurich, I met, about evening, a company of well-formed men, who were distinguishable for their cleanliness, circumspection, and gravity of deportment.