dual 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 _septicaemia_.
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.

THE SANGUINE TEMPERAMENT.

Lymph is the characteristic of the lymphatic temperament, and its
specific gravity, temperature, and standard of vitality are all lower
than that of red blood. In the sanguine temperament all the vital
functions are more active, the blood itself has a deeper hue, its
corpuscles carry more oxygen, the complexion is quite florid, and the
arterial currents impart to every faculty a more hopeful vigor. The
blood-vessels are the most active absorbents, eagerly appropriating
nutritive materials for the general circulation, while the respiration
adds to it