wards, and well relieved from the body, he may be a proficient in
these exercises. A peculiarity in walking is given by the size of the
head and neck being out of proportion; and an instance is mentioned of
a man being discharged from the army, on account of his conformation
rendering it impossible for him to keep his head steady.

All these are curious and suggestive particulars. It is customary to
refer awkwardness of manner to bad habit, and such diseases as
consumption either to imprudence or hereditary taint; but it may be
doubted whether taints are not mainly the result of original
conformation. Habit and imprudence may doubtless aggravate the evil,
just as exercise may enlarge a member of the body; but it is nature
which sows the seeds of decay in her own productions. Physically, the
child is a copy of the parents, even to their peculiarities of gait;
and these peculiarities would seem to depend on the correct or
incorrect balance of the members of the body. When the conformation is
of a kind which interferes with the play of the lungs, the same
transmission of course takes place, and consumption may be the fatal
inheritance. If the arrangement of the parts were perfect, it may be
doubted--for symmetry is the basis of health as well as
beauty--whether we should ever hear of such a thing as 'taint in the
blood.' If this theory were to gain ground, it would simplify much the
practice of medicine; for the disease would stand in visible and
tangible presence before the eyes, and the employment of inventions,
to counteract and finally conquer the eccentricities of nature, would
be governed by science, and thus relieved from the suspicion of
quackery, which at present more or less attaches to it. To pursue
these speculations, however, would lead us too far; and before
concluding, we must find room for a few more of our practical
philosopher's observations.

All good mechanics, it seems, have large hands and thick and short
fingers; which is pretty nearly the conclusion arrived at by
D'Arpentigny in _La Chirognomonie_, although the captain adds, that
the hands must be _en spatule_--that is to say, with the end of the
fingers enlarged in the form of a spatula. The hand is generally the
same breadth as the foot: a fact recognised by the country people,
who, when buying their shoes at fairs--which were the usual
mart--might have been seen thrusting in their hand to try the breadth,
when they had ascertained that the leng