 It has often been noted that Porta opens perspectives on the sinister tradition of eugenics (Paolella 2015), not uncommon currency in European intellectual culture since its articulation in Plato’s Timaeus (90), where a handsome body is stipulated as the abode of a beautiful soul. Apart from the elemental influences altering body and mind, which can be reduced to qualities perceived through touch (such as hot/cold, dry/moist), Porta mentions nutrition, climate, and age as determinants of an individual’s mental and physical shape, not only of human beings but also of animals and even of plants. Disease may also alter an individual’s mental disposition: as an example, Porta mentions fevers—since they dry up the brain, they may cause the patient to become more intelligent. Disease may even instill a capacity for divination. Alterations in outward appearance bear thus significant consequences for the individual’s behaviour and habits (De humana pysiognomonia bk. 6, ch.1).