“ FORMS AND FEATURES ” OF MAN.

Kumara Times, Issue 238, 21 April 1884, Page 2

“ FORMS AND FEATURES ” OF MAN.

Dr. J. Simms, who is known as “a most skilled practical physiognomist” and speaker, has been lecturing at Dunedin lately. The subject of his lecture at the Lyceum Hall on Wednesday last was “ Forms and Features,” The subjects treated are thus summarised by the Otago Daily Times : There are five leading forms of development in the human body, indicating so many classes of character. Ascending from the lower to the higher, they are—(l) the abdominal ; (2) the thoracic ; (3) the muscular and fibrous ; (4) the osseous or bony ; (5) the brain and nerve.—l, The abdomen is that part of the body which contains the stomach, bowels, liver, and other organs necessary for digesting and assimilating food. Where it is largely developed, there is generally a broad month, full cheeks, a double chin, round nose, and sleepy-looking eyes. We expect to find persons of this make good-natured, social, and indolent; selfish, fond of good eating and drinking, and liable to dropsy, inflammatory rheumatism, gout, apoplexy, and other similar complaints. 2. The thoracic form appears in a fullydeveloped chest, connected with which we generally find huge nostrils and prominent cheek bones. Persons so formed are stirring and active; of changeful temper, liable to acute inflammatory diseases, but not to pulmonary consumption. Mountaineers are generally more thoracic in their development than those who live on low and flat lands. 3. The muscular form appears in general breadth of body rather than length. The head is round and wide, the ears short, the eyes am*!!, the nose hroad at the base, the shoulders heavy, the foot short and broad,

Muscular people are active, vigorous, proud, and daring. 4. The bony structure gives firmness and reliaibility of character. It depends much on a limy soil, impregnating the food and water with the chief material of bone ; much also on the influence of sunlight and , O proper exercise. Bony men are usually dark-complexioned, have long limbs, square shoulders, and lank hair. The combination of large brain with bony structure is favourable to intellectual greatness, giving the power of performing much mental labour without exhaustion. 5. The development of brain and nerve is the most important, and demands the most attention. Its extreme appears in a spare habit of body, a forehead wider than the cheeks, the features sharp, the lips and nostrils thin, the neck and chest small. Persons of this form are rapid in their motions, keenly sensitive, and apt to be irritable and dyspeptic. They require much sleep and wholesome food to repair the waste which their excitability produces. At the close of the lecture several ladies and gentlemen were neatly and apparently accurately described by a rapid survey of their faces. Among the number was Mr Millis, the ventriloquist, who was truthfully described.