ANTIPATHY is the term applied to a class of cases in which individuals are disagree ably affected by, or violently dislike, things innocuous or agreeable to the majority of mankind. These peculiarities are no doubt sometimes acquired in early life by injudi ciously terrifying children with some object, the mental impression becoming permanent. A large class of persons have an A. to animal food, and from childhood refuse to taste it. In others, again, the aversion is limited to one kind of meat, as veal or pork; others are averse to eggs or milk. Nor is this feeling a conscious caprice, which an exertion of the will might remove; for it is generally found that contact with the object of the A. is resented by the bodily economy, and symptoms of poisoning are rapidly produced. Some are affected with these symptoms who have no mental aversion to the article. We read of a countess who had a liking for beef-udder, but directly it touched her lips they became swollen. There is also the case of a boy, who "if at any time he ate of an egg, his lips would swell, in his face would rise purple and black spots, and he would froth at the mouth." Some medicines affect particular persons dangerously, even when given in very minute doses: a single grain of mercury has been known to induce a profuse salivation, with destruction of the jaw-bones. On others, medicines have a peculiar effect—astringents may purge. Every summer, in Great Britain, persons may be seen with the most distressing irritation of the nasal and palpebral mucous membranes, pro duced by the exhalations arising from the fields during the inflorescence of the hay crop.
In others, an asthmatic condition is induced by the same cause. The air of some places has a similar influence on individuals: one gentleman was always attacked with asthma if he slept in the town of Kilkenny, and another rarely escaped a fit of that complaint, if he slept anywhere else.
The most remarkable antipathies are those affecting the special senses. Nearly all persons have a loathing at reptiles, hut some few faint on seeing a toad or lizard, others on seeing insects. " The duke d'Epernon swooned at sight of a leveret—a hare did not produce the same effect. Tycho Brake fainted at sight of a fox, Henry III. of Prance at that of a cat, and Marshal d'Albert at a pig."—Millingen.
Hearing a wet finger drawn on glass, the grinding of knives, or a creaking wheel, is sufficient to produce fainting in some. Smelling musk or ambergris throws some into convulsions; and we have seen how articles of food affect others—often, no doubt, owing to perverted taste. The touch of anything unusually smooth has the same effect some times. Zimmerman records the case of a lady who was thus affected by the feeling of silk, satin, or the velvety skin of a peach.—This subject is also noticed under Iniosm