Fig. 20. Fig. 21.
Macroscelous type (from Viola).
"Experience also teaches that one pupil may be adapted to one kind of exercise and another to another kind. Accordingly a really physiological system of gymnastics requires that those movements and those exercises which are least easily performed should be practised according to special methods, until they have strengthened the less developed functions, without ever causing illness or producing harmful reactions.[10]"
So that the final results are an improvement in the morphological proportions of the organism, and consequently a correction and improvement in the relative liability to disease.
The other fundamental pathological type described by De Giovanni is the hypersthenic (second morphological combination), corresponding in part to the sanguine temperament of Greek medicine, and in part to the bilious temperament. In this type the total spread of the arms is generally less than the stature, and the perimeter of the chest notably exceeds one-half the stature. Consequently we are dealing with the brachyscelous type.
This type has a greatly developed thorax, a large heart, an excessive development of the intestines; hence he is a hearty eater, subject to an over-abundance of blood; he is over-nourished, the ruddy skin reveals an abundant circulation, there is an excess of adipose tissue and a good development of the striped muscles. Such a constitution accompanies an excitable, impulsive, violent disposition, and conduces to diseases of the heart. "This type is characterised in general by robustness and a liability to disorders of the central circulatory system."[11]
But there are still other forms of disease that await the individuals of this class, such for example as disorders affecting the interchange of organic matter (diabetes, gout, polysarcia = obesity) and attacks of an apoplectic nature. In the case of acute illness individuals of this class suffer from excess of blood and may be relieved by being bled. They are readily liable to bloody excretions.
Here are a few cases illustrating this morphological combination, which is characterised by an exorbitant chest development (it must be borne in mind that the circumference of the thorax, Ct, should equal one-half the stature, St).
P. A.—St 156; Ct 93.—Endocarditis; insufficient heart-action.