The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English / or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred / and Fifty Thousand

by Ray Vaughn Pierce

THE LYMPHATIC TEMPERAMENT.

The lymphatic temperament predominates when the anterior base of the brain and the middle lobe are developed so as to exert a preponderating influence over the bodily functions. The character of this influence we have described in cerebral physiology. It is difficult to state precisely the normal influences and nerve-forces which arise from these faculties, but it is evident that they are specially related to nutritive attraction, in opposition to volitive repulsion. It is only their excessive influence which produces worthless, miserable, morbid characters. A constitution marked by this development is indolent, relaxative, and an easy prey to epidemics. This treatment is also characterized by a low grade of vitality or resistance. When life is sustained by the volitive powers, it is distinguished by a softness of the bodily tissues, and the prevalence of lymph. The fact that all the organic functions are performed indolently, indicates lack of vital power. An excellent illustration of this temperament is found in Fig. 81, which represents a Chinese gentleman of distinction. In the lower order of animals, as in sponges, absorption is performed by contiguous cells, which are quite as effortless as in plants. Because of their organic indolence, sponges are often classed as vegetables. A body having an atonic or a lymphatic temperament is abundantly supplied with absorbent organs, which are very sluggish in their operations. In the lymphatic temperament, there seems to be less constructive energy, slower elaboration, and greater frugality. Lymph is a colorless or yellow fluid containing a large proportion of water. It is not so highly organized as the blood, but resembles it, when that fluid is deprived of its red corpuscles. In the sanguine temperament, circulation in the blood-vessels is the most active, in the lacteals next, and in the lymphatics the least so, but in the lymphatic temperament, this order is reversed.

Dr. W.B. Powell has observed that a lymphatic man has a large head, while a fat man has a small one, and also that fat and lymph, are convertible, one following the other, i.e., "a repletion consisting of fat may be removed, and one of lymph may replace it, and vice versa." He could not account for these alternations. The bear goes into his winter quarters sleek and fat, and comes forth in the spring just as plump with lymph, but he loses this fat appearance soon after obtaining food. This simply indicates that, during lymphatic activity, the digestive organs are comparatively quiescent. But when these are functionally employed again, lymphatic economy is not required. It is the duty of the lymphatics to slowly convert the fat by such transformation, that when it reaches the general circulation, it may there unite with other organic compounds, the process being aided by atmospheric nitrogen, introduced during the act of respiration. In this way it may become changed into those chemically indefinite, artificial products, called proteid compounds. This view is supported by the disappearance of fat as an organized product in the lymph of the lymphatic vessels, indicating that such transformation has occurred. In this way, by uniting with other organic compounds, it appears that lymph may serve as a weak basis for blood; that atmospheric nitrogen is also employed in forming these artificial compounds, is indicated by the fact that there is sometimes less detected in arterial than in venous blood.

This temperament is indicated by lymphatic repletion, soft flesh, pale complexion, watery blood, slow and soft pulse, oval head, and broad skull, showing breadth at its base. Fig. 82 illustrates this temperament combined with sanguine elements. In all good illustrations of this temperament, there is a breadth of the anterior base of the skull extending forward to the cheek bones. There is likewise a corresponding fullness of the face under the chin, and in the neck, denoting a large development of the anterior base of the cerebrum. The cerebral conformation of the Hon. Judge Green indicates mental activity, and we have no reason to suppose that lymph was particularly abundant in his brain.

While this description of the lymphatic temperament is correct, when illustrated by the civilized races of men who are accustomed to luxury, ease, and an abundance of food, it does not apply with equal accuracy to the cerebral organization of the American Indian. His skull, though broad at its anterior base, and high and wide at the cheek bones, differs from the European in being broader and longer behind the ears. Fig. 83 is an excellent representation of a noted North American Indian. While a great breadth of the base of the brain indicates morbid susceptibilities, yet these, in the Indian, are opposed by a superior height of the posterior part of the skull. Consequently, he is restless, impulsive, excitable, passionate, a wanderer upon the earth. The basilar faculties, however, are large, and he is noted for instinctive intelligence. His habits alternate from laziness to heroic effort, from idleness and quiet to the fierce excitement of the chase, from vagabondism to war, sometimes indolent and at other times turbulent, but under all circumstances, irregular and unreliable. In this case, lacteal activity is greater than lymphatic, as his nomadic life indicates. Nevertheless, he manifests a morbid sensibility to epidemic diseases, especially those which engender nutritive disorders and corrupt the blood. Figs. 84 and 85 represent the brain of an American Indian, and that of a European, and show the remarkable difference in their anatomical configuration. Evidently it is a race-distinction. Observe the greater breadth of the brain of the Indian, which according to cerebral physiology indicates great alimentiveness, indolence, morbid sensibility, irritability, profligacy, but also note that it differs materially in the proportion of all its parts, from the European brain. Judging the character of the Indian from the aforesaid representation, we should say that he was cunning, excitable, treacherous, fitful, taciturn, or violently demonstrative. His constitution is very susceptible to diseases of the bowels and blood. His appetite is ungovernable, and his love of stimulants is strong. Syphilitic poison, small-pox, and strong drink will annihilate all these tribes sooner than gunpowder. Their physical traits of constitution are no less contradictory than their extremes of habit and character, for while there is evidence of lymphatic elements, yet it is contradicted by the color of the hair, eyes, and skin. This peculiar organization will not blend in healthful harmony with that of the European, and this demonstrates that the race-temperaments require separate and careful analytical consideration.

By physical culture and regulation of the habits, the excessive tendencies of this temperament may be restrained. Solid food should be substituted for a watery diet. If it be limited in quantity, this change will not only diminish the size, but increase the strength of the body. The body should be disciplined by daily percussion until the imperfectly constructed cells, which are too feeble to resist this treatment, are broken and replaced by those more hardy and enduring. Add to this treatment brisk, dry rubbing, calisthenic exercises, and daily walks, which should be gradually extended. Continue this treatment for three months, and its favorable effects upon the temperament will surprise the most skeptical; if continued for a year, a radical alteration will be effected, and the hardihood, health, and vigor of the constitution will be greatly increased.

This temperament may be improved physiologically, by being blended with the sanguine and volitive. The offspring will be stronger, the structures firmer, the organization more dense. Nutrition, assimilation, and all the constructive functions will be more energetic in weaving together the cellular fabric of the body. The sanguine temperament will add a stimulus to the organic activities, while the volitive will communicate manly, brave, and enduring qualities. When this temperament is united with the encephalic, if such a union does not result in barrenness, it adds expending and exhaustive tendencies to the enfeebling'ones already existing, and, consequently, the offspring lacks both physical power and intellectual activity.

The peculiarities of this temperament are observed in the diseases which characterize it. It is specially liable to derangements of digestion, nutrition, and blood-making. The blood is easily poisoned by morbid products formed within the body, as well as by those derived from the body of another. This is seen in pyæmia, produced by the introduction of decomposing pus, or "matter," into the blood. This condition is most likely to occur when the vital powers are low and the energies weak, for then the fibrin decreases, the red corpuscles diminish in number, the circulation becomes languid, the pulse grows fluttering and weak, and this increases until death ensues. An individual of this temperament is more easily destroyed than any other by the poison of syphilis, small-pox, and other contagious diseases. If the blood has received any hereditary taint, the lymphatic glands not only reproduce it but often increase the virulency of the original disease. This temperament indicates a necessity for the employment of stimulating, alterative, and antiseptic medicines. The torpid functions need arousing, the blood needs depuration, i.e., the elimination of corrupting matter, and the system requires alteratives to produce these salutary changes. The secretions need the correcting influence of cleansing remedies for the purification of the blood.

Persons of this temperament are more liable to absorption of morbid products within the body, which are in a state of decomposition, producing an infection of the blood, technically termed septicæmia. The fatal results which so suddenly follow child-bed fever are thus produced. This kind of poisoning sometimes takes place from the absorption of decomposed exudation in diphtheria, and, though rarely, from decomposing organic products collected in the lungs. Whenever the absorption of poison does take place, fatal consequences usually follow.

This passive temperament is more likely to sink under acute attacks of disease, especially alimentary disorders, such as diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera. It quickly succumbs to their prostrating effects, such as depression, congestion, and fatal collapse which rapidly succeed one another. Venesection and harsh purgatives are contra-indicated, and the physician who persists in their employment kills his patient. How grateful are warmth and stimulating medicines! The most powerful, diffusible, and nervous stimulants are required in cholera, when the system is devastated by the disease, as the plain is laid waste by the fierce tornado.