STRANGE FEARS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1932, Page 14

STRANGE FEARS

MEN AND ANIMALS

NAPOLEON'S SCARE

POOD PHOBIAS

Some famous people have displayed a ' pronounced -antipathy to cats. When i Napoleon was quartered at the Imperial Palace of Schonbrunn, in Vienna, after the Battle ofWagram, an aide de camp, , on retiring to his:room at a .late' hour, i heard shouts for help coming from Na- i poleon's bedroom. On opening the door ! the officer saw Napoleon half-dressed, , running about the room and thrusting | his sword through the tapestries hang- , iug against the walls, in search for a, ( cat that had taken'"refuge there, says j a writer in. the- Molbourno "Age." ' The A Emperor was in a-state of agitation, t and beads of perspiration were running j down his face. Another great soldier 1 yvho could not bear cats was Field-Mar- r shal Earl Roberts. Henry 111. of Prance \ could not sit in a room in which there t jwas a cat, and the Duke of Schomberg ihad the same aversion. It is recorded ihat a gentleman at the Court of the j Ferdinand, Gorman King and Roman j Emperor, would bleed at the nose on Jiearing tho mewing of a cat. t Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, an American ] medical man, who devoted some at- s tontion to aelurophobia, the name given ( +o the sickness and alarm created in .. human beings by the presence of cats, c noted thirty cases within his own ex- j iperience of persons who could tell when j ou unseen cat was iv the room. Ho \ ksontributcd a paper on the subject to t Medicine" for July, 1905. r [Mention has been made of a soldier of c distinction who had a reputation as a, E itiger slayer, but became terrified in tho \ jpresenco of a domestic cat. . Medical -, science is unable to explain this anti- c pathy to cats. Dr. Mitchell's sugges- i tion that it is an example of "inherited a [remainders of animal instincts of pro- c [tective nature" is decidedly \veak..That «. might explain the mouse's feelings to- t ;wards thecat, but not the unreasoning \ antipathy of a comparatively small pro- c (portion of men jnd women. It is an j established fact that the cat likes the t people who dislike it so much that they g cannot bear the sight of it. The cat likes to keep near them, to jump on { " their laps, and to follow thorn about. OTHER ANIMALS. There are other comparatively-harm- < less animals which inspire dislike and c jeven terror in individuals. M. do Lancro J gives an account of a man ivho was 1 terrified at the sight of a hedgehog, 1 and of an Army officer 'who was so c ■terrified at1 tho sight of a mouse that * lie da"red not face one unless he had a uword in his hand. The.Duke d'Eper- s jion swooned on seeing- a leveret; but the sight of a full-grown ,hare had not * the same effect. Tycho Brahc fainted i at the sight of a fox, and Marshal *■ '•d'Albert at that of a .pig. M. Yang- l heim of Hanover, who had a reputation * us a huntsman, would faint in the pre- * »cnce of a roasted pig. Erasmus had c such an objection to fish that he do- s yeloped feverish symptoms whenever * Jie smelt fish. Ainbroso Pare mentions ( b. man who fainte I whenever he saw an ' eel, and another -vho went into convul- ' eions at the sight of a carp. J The perfumes of some flowers are ) Jiuown to produce nausea in a few in- l dividuals. Ainatus Lusitanus refers to ( t,h,o case of a moak who fainted when- ' ever he saw a rose, and kept close- to his cell when the rose trees were in , ■bloom. Jo&eph Scaliger, a French scholar, of tho sixteenth century, men- , tions that one of his relations became sick ■when he saw a lily; and Scaliger ? himself turnod pale at the, sight of •water cress, and regarded milk as a most offensive beverage. Montaigne, in discussing these inexplicable repugnances, mentions that some men (of , ■whom Uladislaus, King of Poland, was one') could not bear tho smell of apples. ' If an apple was shown to Chesnp, secre- , tary to Francis I. of FEance/iie bled at the nose. Zimmeniiiii) refers to a lady who could not endure the touch of silk or satin, and shuddered if she touchod the velvety skin of a peach. Eobrrt Boyle, famous as a natural philosopher and chemist, could not without faint:ng endure the sound of splashing ■water, or water running through a pipe. Ho records the case of a than who had a remarkable abhorrence of honey. The sound of a servant sweeping has been known to produce nausea. La Mothe 3c Vayer could not endure the sound of musical instruments.,-but liked the noise of thunder. FOODS DISLIKED. Some men and women have proHouuced prejudices against certain foods. Some cannot eat" fish*; others have an aversion to poultry, rabbit, cheese, and certain fruits and vegetables. Horseflesh is tho chief meat diet of the working classes in Trance and Belgium, but across the Channel in England there is a national prejudice against eating horseflesh. In theory the cat's-meat man (who describes himself on his shop window as "Pussy's butcher") is the only man who buys horseflesh in England from the knacker; but there is reason to believe that some horseflesh finds its way in some countries into sausages. Almost everyone has an aversion from trying experiments in eating tiie .flesh of animals not usually, prepared for the table. But in the face- of starvation this, prejudice soon vanishes. During the Great War, when the Allies maintained a >naval blockade of '-theCentral Empires, the food shortage became so acute in Germany that thousands of dogs and cats were eaten. Prisoners of war when endeavouring to escape from Germany across the Dutch frontier could tell at night when they ■svere approaching the. frontier-by the' barking of dogs. En Germany the nights were peatefil, because there ■were no.dogs to bark. The siege of Paris during the TfrancoPrussian "War'of' 1870-71 lasted four months and a ]i_alf s . and compelled the people of the beiicged city to eat dogs, cats, rats, mice, and most of the animals at the Zoo, which was at the Jardin des'Plantes. IN PARIS. I Tho following entries from the diary of Victor Hugu, M-ho Has. one of the 1,800,00f> Parisians to go through the siege, give an indication oC the straits to which the people were reduced:— 16th October (one month after tho siego began).—^S re arc eating horse with all its variations. I ,22nd October.—For tho last two days Paris has been reduced to salt meat. A rat costs fourpenc.c. 25rd November.—Pics arc "made out of rats. An onion costs a halfpenny,. and a potato a halfpenny. 27th November.—We have bought an antelope's leg from the Jardin dcs Plantes. 28th November.—We ate bear for din--1 ner. ' ■ . , Ist December.—Yesterday we ate venison, bear the day before, and antelope the two previous days. These are presents from tho Jardin dcs Plantea. 3rd December. —After to-day we shall have only brown bread in Paris. loth December.—Yesterday I ate rat. 30th December.—We are now eating nothing but pork or perhaps dog or perhaps rat; we are eating we don't know what. 31st December. —I am sharing the sufferings of the people. It is true that I can't digest horse, but I eat it all the jsame, and. am given slices of it. We

were eating brown bread, but how we are on black bread. It is the same for all of us, and that is right. ' Francis Buckland, a British naturalist, who died in. 1880, had no prejudices in the matter of diet. He is remembered to-day less for his work as a naturalist than for his daring gastronomical experiments. To some extent his appetite for strange meats was inherited from his father, Dean Buckland. It is recorded that when a horse belonging to the dean's brother-in-law was shot the dean had the tonguo of the animal pickled and served at a luncheon party. The guests enjoyed this delicacy, but were subsequently somewhat dismayed when told what they had eaten. STRANGE FANCIES. As a naturalist and honorary pathologist of the London Zoo, Francis Buckland had many opportunities of indulging his strange fancies in the matter of meat. Mice, rats, frogs, snails, hedgehogs, tortoises, and puppies were served at his table at intervals. After he became associated with the Zoo he tried alligator steak and soup made from an elephant's trunk. When the giraffe house at the Zoo was burned down he was able to indulge in roast giraffe. He recorded in his journal that after learning a panther had died at the Zoo: "I wrote up at onc^ to tell them to send me down some chops. It had, however, been buried a coaple of days, but I got them to dig it up and send mo some. It was not very good." Primitive people seem to have uo objection to eating putrid food; in fact, some seem to prefer their meat in. that condition. Major P. M. Stewart, in his book, "Travels and Sport ' in' Maty Lands," states that he . watched a scramble among his native carriers in Central Africa for the hindquarters of a tiny antelope which was in a putrid condition. "At that time I was surprised at their craving for meat and their indifference to its condition," he writes, "for I did not know then that j they devour caterpillars and bee bread, mix blood with their meal, and have no objection to stalo eggs, of almost any age, or decayed fish of every description. They "also drank the foulest water, apparently with impunity." He quotes Livingstone's statements that "the native idea of a good ogg differs as widely from our own as is possible' on such a trifling subject," also that "an egg is eaten with apparent relish though an embryo chick be inside," and when travelling up the Zambesi "the canoe men invariably picked up every dead fish they saw on the surface ,of the water, however far gone. An qnfvagrant odour was no objection; the.fish was boiled and eaten, and the water, drunk as soup." ' > NOT THE DONKEY. On the other hand, when a donkey died they were shocked at the idea of eating it, saying fit wpuld be like- oating man himself, because the donkey lives' -with 'manj and is his bosom com-, panion.". So, too, a chief refused a leg of iin ox, saying that neither he/ nor his people ever partook of beef, as they "looked, on cattle as human, and living at homo like men." .' Tho later .Frederick\C; Sclous, »\ his book,' "A Hunter's .Wanderings in Africa," "iccords' that on one occasion liis men came across an addled ostrich egg, and esteemed it such a delicacy that- they licked every piece of the shell that could be found after the egg ,was -racked. Selous also mentions that some natives cut up the carcass' of an elephant that had been lying for eight aays benciith the fiercest rays of the tropical sun. "Truly some tribes of kaffirs and bushmen aro fouler feeders Lhan tho vultures or hyenas," wrote Sclous. "This is not an isolated case, as they are constantly in the habit of eating putrid meat, and there is little doubt that they like it just as well, if not better, than sweet flesh; curiously, too, it does not seem to do them any harm." i . /'*V. Mr. F. A. Mitchell-Hedges,, m-^jjis book, "Land of Wonder and Feh*,?/ notes the same fact in,regard to the. Indians in British Honduras (Central America). "One of the mysteries we never solved," he states, "was how they were able to eat putrid food without" suffering^the least inconvenience. They can consume vast quantities in an advanced state of putrefaction that would more likely than not kill a white man. But with, them it has no ill effects."- '