BODILY ECCENTRICITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3524, 28 July 1879, Page 3

BODILY ECCENTRICITY.

BXTBAOBDINABY ANTIPATIIIES.

It does not seem to bo very generally recognised that bodily eccentricity is almost as common as mental. The two things, indeed, run one into the otber in a manner which often makes it difficult to say which is which. King James tho First's weli-known dread of a naked sword would perhaps be put down unhesitatingly to a mental peculiarity. It is commonly known that James had* bucli a dread of a Bword that tho task of knighting individuals was extremely repugnant to him. Kir Knowles Digby says that when he received that honour the King's arms shook so violently that tho Duke of Buckingham had to guide tbe sword across tho shoulder of tho knight-elect, or the point of it would probably have gone into his face. Another historical" instance of au antipathy wbich looks to havej been purely mental, was Peter tho Great's repugnance to water. From the sixth to the fourteenth year of his age Peter had such a horror- of water, especially of a running Btrcatri or waterfall, that he could norer be persuaded tbiook upon it. He would not welk in the _paj[ape grounds because a river ran in the vicinity, and ho could nover so much as cross""' ov bridge over a brook, except in a carriage with the windows fast closed. It was attributed to a fright he received when a child of fivo yearß old. His mother had him one day in a coach, and as they passed over a dam the roar of the waterfa" awoke him in such a fright that brain fever ensued, and this antipathy to wator remained as the effect, ft was felt to be so serious an impediment to his enterprising spirit that ono of his courtiers sot himself to overcome it, and young Peter was enticed by a carefully-planned stratagem, first to the bank of a shallow brook, and afterwards was persuaded to wade through it on horseback, a feat of intrepidity which so pleased tbe young prince that ho sot himself to the task of entirely overcoming his infirmity. This he did at the ago of about fourteen, and and never afterwards had any difficulty in the matter. This, no doubt, may be takon to havo been a purely montal matter, and perhaps King Jartes's may havo been also. There are, however, many effects on re cord which would at first sight bo pronounced to be quite as indubitably mental in thoir character, but wliich nevertheless seem to have been due to some bodily peculiarity. It is a curious complication of the matter that some of theso effects have boon producod without so much as a knowledge of tho vicinity of the offensive tilings. Henry 111, of Franco coi ]l d not stay in a room where there was a cat, and would appear to be uneasily conscious of something wrong if one were in b'B neighbourhood, oven though bo had not perceived it. A wellknown surgeon relates a curious instance of a patient on whom rico seemed to act as a poison. As rice is ordinarily wholesome, it would not appear unreasonable to assume that auy apparently poisonous effects resulting from it might be regm-led as a curious illustration of tho power of montal prejudice. But this gentleman goes on 'o affirm that on one occasion, when at a ilisner party, his patient felt the symptoms of rico poisoning coming on, and was compelled to leave the table, although unaware of having touched any rico. It turned out, however, that tho whito soup of which he had partaken was thickened with it. A aimilar.n.tanceis related by a gontlemon who also found an irritant poison in a rico diet, and who wa . so intensely sensitive to its effect that after drinking a littlo bottled beer in which a few grains of rice had been put to induce secondary fermentation, he became seriously unwell, though quite unaware that the beer had contained anything objectionable. Dr. Prout speaks of a gentleman to whom a mutton chop was almost as poiaonOui as a toadstool. This was attributed by his medical attendant to a men whim. Ho fancied mutton did not agree with him, and such was tho power of fancy, argued the doctor, that it actually made him ill to swallow a littlo. In order to provo tho soundness of this theory mutton was served up to him cunningly disguised as nnother kind of meat. It then become clear it was not a matter of moro fancy, but a curious physiological fact, that an articlo of diet perfectly wholesomo ,'ana nutritious to most people was to thisi gentleman nothing less than a irritant poison, producing vomiting and diarrhoea. Innumerable instances of a similar kind aro on record. Dr Wyntcr bus collectod a great many of them. He himself once knew a lady who could never touch lobster salad without its producing spots all over her neck and faco. She ventured to tako a littlo one evening at a party, and in a short time was bo disfigured that she had to retire. Cockles and shrimps, ho says, havo a similar influence on some persons. A medical friend of DrWynter's told him that a lady of his acquaintance always suffered from nettle-rash aftor eating veal, and that ncrvpus excitement was the result of eating a little orango peel. Sir James Eyre mentions the caße of a gentleman!; who was | invariably made ill if he ate but a singlo strawberry. He also spake of a man who invariably had an attack of gout a short timo after partaking of fish. These eccentricities are not confined to any one of the senses, but seem common to them all. Uladislaus, King of Poland, had tho strongest aversion to the sight of apples. Dr Wynter mentions an eccentric individual to whom the touch of a russet apple was intolerable. A lady of his acquaintance could not pass her hand along the bristles of a brush without it occasioning , hor the most exquisite norvous distress. Scaliger could not look at velvet without hiß whole body becoming violently agitated. Boylo would fall into convulsions if ho chanced to hoar water running from a tap ; and La Motte de Vayer, though ho would listen with tho keenest pleasure to the roll and crash of thunder, could not bear to listen to music. It is, however, the palate probably which displays these eccentricities most strikingly, and tho 'instances we have given, and which might bd accumulated well-nigh indefinitely, abun-

dantlybearout the old adage that "what is one man's food is another man's noison. — Globe.'