Constitution

CONSTITUTION. — From cum and statuere, it is understood, in the ancient sense, as the structural morphological complex of the human body; the individual's original architectural type, essentially hereditary and congenital, in any case formed during the period of intrauterine and extrauterine formation.

Today, into the concept of constitution — chiefly through the merit of the Italian medical school (A. De Giovanni, G. Viola, N. Pende) — there is also meant to be included the individual dynamic side, or functional temperament, inseparable from the characterological one. The science of constitution, thus understood, was named individuology by Viola: more expressive and concise is Pende's term individual biotypology. But for many, constitution is still the morphological side of the personality with its anomalies and morbid predispositions, which are called constitutional anomalies and constitutional morbid dispositions, abnormal and sub-morbid morphological habits. Biometry (v.) in the form of anthropometry is, in fact, still the fundamental diagnostic method for the study of the individual constitution.

The diseases that have a fundamental root in the subject's hereditary constitution are called constitutional diseases and are confused with hereditary and familial diseases; but the term is rather improper, because today human genetics teaches that what is inherited is not diseases but predispositions to diseases.

Nicola Pende