at was
put on the table in a covered dish. The man began to sweat and shudder
without knowing why, and when the cat was shown he killed his host in a
paroxysm of terror. Another man could not even see the hated form even
in a picture without breaking into a cold sweat and feeling a sense of
oppression about the heart. Quercetanus and Smetius mention fainting at
the sight of cats. Marshal d'Abret was supposed to be in violent fear
of a pig.

As to idiosyncrasies of the sense of touch, it is well known that some
people cannot handle velvet or touch the velvety skin of a peach
without having disagreeable and chilly sensations come over them.
Prochaska knew a man who vomited the moment he touched a peach, and
many people, otherwise very fond of this fruit, are unable to touch it.
The Ephemerides speaks of a peculiar idiosyncrasy of skin in the axilla
of a certain person, which if tickled would provoke vomiting. It is
occasionally stated in the older writings that some persons have an
idiosyncrasy as regards the phases of the sun and moon. Baillou speaks
of a woman who fell unconscious at sunset and did not recover till it
reappeared on the horizon. The celebrated Chancellor Bacon, according
to Mead, was very delicate, and was accustomed to fall into a state of
great feebleness at every moon-set without any other imaginable cause.
He never recovered from his swooning until the moon reappeared.

Nothing is more common than the idiosyncrasy which certain people
display for certain foods. The trite proverb, "What is one man's meat
is another man's poison," is a genuine truth, and is exemplified by
hundreds of instances. Many people are unable to eat fish without
subsequent disagreeable symptoms. Prominent among the causes of
urticaria are oysters, crabs, and other shell fish, strawberries,
raspberries, and other fruits. The abundance of literature on this
subject makes an exhaustive collection of data impossible, and only a
few of the prominent and striking instances can be reported.

Amatus Lusitanus speaks of vomiting and diarrhea occurring each time a
certain Spaniard ate meat. Haller knew a person who was purged
violently by syrup of roses. The son of one of the friends of Wagner
would vomit immediately after the ingestion of any substance containing
honey. Bayle has mentioned a person so susceptible to honey that by a
plaster of this substance placed upon the skin this untoward effect was
produced. Whytt knew a woman wh