Physiognomy are irascible". The principal promoter of physiognomy in modern times was the Swiss pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) who was briefly a friend of Goethe. Lavater's essays on physiognomy were first published in German in 1772 and gained great popularity. These influential essays were translated into French and English. Lavater found 'confirmation' of his ideas from the English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), and the Italian Giambattista Della Porta (1535–1615). Browne in his "Religio Medici" (1643) discusses the possibility of the discernment of inner qualities from the outer appearance of the face, thus: He reaffirmed his physiognomic beliefs in "Christian
Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body story, it would seem that those 'who go down to the silkworm room' [who are administratively sentenced to castration] should not be ignorant of this method, so I append it here." In some "Bencao gangmu" contexts concerning human drugs, Li Shizhen would accept the traditional theory but deny the contemporary practice. Under the human breath or "qi" section (52.23, tr. Luo 2003: 4176), Li says a "very effective" method for treating an elderly person who is suffering from cold and deficiency in the lower body is to have a boy or girl blow air through a cloth into the navel.