AN OLD MYSTERY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20100, 20 March 1928, Page 8

AN OLD MYSTERY

“WHO SAID CATS?” FAMOUS PEOPLE’S PET AVERSION The story is told of how one of Napoleon’s aide-de-camps, hearing urgent calls for assistance in the middle, of the, night, rushed to the great soldier’s apartment. There he found Napoleon, in a state bordering on terror, thrusting his sword frantically through the tapestries that draped the walls. Suspecting an assassin, the officer quickly searched the room and discovered —a cat! How did Napoleon know Hie cat was there? And why was he so much alarmed? Apparently because he was an ailurophobo; one of those people of whom Shylock speaks: “Some men . . . are mad if they behold a cat.” Napoleon’s case is similar to that of the gallant Highland chieftain mentioned in Sir Walter Scott’s book on witchcraft, who would turn all the colours of his plaid if a cat happened to be in the room with him, even though he did not sec it. Another typical ailurophobo was Henry 111., a king who could not face a cat without becoming violently agitated. Poor Boswell was a sufferer, too, and he had some uneasy moments on account of Dr. Johnson’s favourite Hodge, until the attraction of the doctor overcame the repulsion of the cat. And the poet i Ronsard has admitted that no sooner did he sec a cat than he must turn and fly-

Another subject of this mysterious complaint was Lord Roberts. At one dinner party the guests noticed that he was ill at case. “I have the cat feeling,” he explained; “there must be a cat in the room.” A thorough search was made without result; and then, the window curtain being withdrawn, a cat was discovered sitting outside on the sill. As soon as this was driven away Lord Roberts regained his composure. There arc many such cases on record, the majority so well authenticated that 'it is unnnecessary to place undue stress on the story told in an early Spectator of the man who could never pass an inn signboard depicting a cat —a very frequent sign in those days—without feeling faint and in need of stimulant!

As to the, explanation of the mystery —probably the supposed relation between cats and witßhes, a belief lasting for centuries, has bred antipathy in many people. The simpler form of the complaint, which is akin to asthma, may result from the animal’s smell. But the most serious form, which causes brave men to become terrified, is less Nor is it easy to understand how the presence of a hidden cat is discovered. Dr S. Weir Mitchell, w’ho investigated many cases, concluded that ailurophobes are particularly sensitive to the cat’s odour, and thus scent the animal when it is ii perceptible to normal people; but another theory is that the cat is detected by its electricity.