o we mean by an antipathy? It is an
aversion to some object, which may vary in degree from mere dislike to
mortal horror. What the cause of this aversion is we cannot say. It acts
sometimes through the senses, sometimes through the imagination,
sometimes through an unknown channel. The relations which exist between
the human being and all that surrounds him vary in consequence of some
adjustment peculiar to each individual. The brute fact is expressed in
the phrase "One man's meat is another man's poison."

In studying the history of antipathies the doctor began with those
referable to the sense of taste, which are among the most common. In any
collection of a hundred persons there will be found those who cannot make
use of certain articles of food generally acceptable. This may be from
the disgust they occasion or the effects they have been found to produce.
Every one knows individuals who cannot venture on honey, or cheese, or
veal, with impunity. Carlyle, for example, complains of having veal set
before him,--a meat he could not endure. There is a whole family
connection in New England, and that a very famous one, to many of whose
members, in different generations, all the products of the dairy are the
subjects of a congenital antipathy. Montaigne says there are persons who
dread the smell of apples more than they would dread being exposed to a
fire of musketry. The readers of the charming story "A Week in a French
Country-House" will remember poor Monsieur Jacque's piteous cry in the
night: "Ursula, art thou asleep? Oh, Ursula, thou sleepest, but I cannot
close my eyes. Dearest Ursula, there is such a dreadful smell! Oh,
Ursula, it is such a smell! I do so wish thou couldst smell it!
Good-night, my angel!----Dearest! I have found them! They are apples!"
The smell of roses, of peonies, of lilies, has been known to cause
faintness. The sight of various objects has had singular effects on some
persons. A boar's head was a favorite dish at the table of great people
in Marshal d'Albret's time; yet he used to faint at the sight of one. It
is not uncommon to meet with persons who faint at the sight of blood.
One of the most inveterately pugnacious of Dr. Butts's college-mates
confessed that he had this infirmity. Stranger and far more awkward than
this is the case mentioned in an ancient collection, where the subject of
the antipathy fainted at the sight of any object of a red color. There
are sounds, also, which have stran