PHYSIOLOGIC AND FUNCTIONAL ANOMALIES. 12 page subjected to any nasal irritation sufficient to excite sneezing.
It has already been remarked that individuals and animals have their
special odors, certain of which are very agreeable to some people and
extremely unpleasant to others. Many persons are not able to endure the
emanations from cats, rats, mice, etc., and the mere fact of one of
these animals being in their vicinity is enough to provoke distressing
symptoms. Mlle. Contat, the celebrated French actress, was not able to
endure the odor of a hare. Stanislaus, King of Poland and Duke of
Lorraine, found it impossible to tolerate the smell of a cat. The
Ephemerides mentions the odor of a little garden-frog as causing
epilepsy. Ab Heers mentions a similar anomaly, fainting caused by the
smell of eels. Habit had rendered Haller insensible to the odor of
putrefying cadavers, but according to Zimmerman the odor of the
perspiration of old people, not perceptible to others, was intolerable
to him at a distance of ten or twelve paces. He also had an extreme
aversion for cheese. According to Dejan, Gaubius knew a man who was
unable to remain in a room with women, having a great repugnance to the
female odor. Strange as it may seem, some individuals are incapable of
appreciating certain odors. Blumenbach mentions an Englishman whose
sense of smell was otherwise very acute, but he was unable to perceive
the perfume of the mignonette.
The impressions which come to us through the sense of hearing cause
sensations agreeable or disagreeable, but even in this sense we see
marked examples of idiosyncrasies and antipathies to various sounds and
tones. In some individuals the sensations in one ear differ from those
of the other. Everard Home has cited several examples, and Heidmann of
Vienna has treated two musicians, one of whom always perceived in the
affected ear, during damp weather, tones an octave lower than in the
other ear. The other musician perceived tones an octave higher in the
affected ear. Cheyne is quoted as mentioning a case in which, when the
subject heard the noise of a drum, blood jetted from the veins with
considerable force. Sauvages has seen a young man in whom intense
headache and febrile paroxysm were only relieved by the noise from a
beaten drum. Esparron has mentioned an infant in whom an ataxic fever
was established by the noise of this instrument. Ephemerides contains
an account of a young man who became nervous and had the sense of
suffocation when he heard the noise made by sweeping. Zimmerman speaks
of a young girl who had convulsions when she heard the rustling of
oiled silk. Boyle, the father of chemistry, could not conquer an
aversion he had to the sound of water running through pipes. A
gentleman of the Court of the Emperor Ferdinand suffered epistaxis when
he heard a cat mew. La Mothe Le Vayer could not endure the sounds of
musical instruments, although he experienced pleasurable sensations
when he heard a clap of thunder. It is said that a chaplain in England
always had a sensation of cold at the top of his head when he read the
53d chapter of Isaiah and certain verses of the Kings. There was an
unhappy wight who could not hear his own name pronounced without being
thrown into convulsions. Marguerite of Valois, sister of Francis I,
could never utter the words "mort" or "petite verole," such a horrible
aversion had she to death and small-pox. According to Campani, the
Chevalier Alcantara could never say "lana," or words pertaining to
woolen clothing. Hippocrates says that a certain Nicanor had the
greatest horror of the sound of the flute at night, although it
delighted him in the daytime. Rousseau reports a Gascon in whom
incontinence of urine was produced by the sound of a bagpipe. Frisch,
Managetta, and Rousse speak of a man in whom the same effect was
produced by the sound of a hurdy-gurdy. Even Shakespeare alludes to the
effects of the sound of bagpipes. Tissot mentions a case in which music
caused epileptic convulsions, and Forestus mentions a beggar who had
convulsions at the sound of a wooden trumpet similar to those used by
children in play. Rousseau mentions music as causing convulsive
laughter in a woman. Bayle mentions a woman who fainted at the sound of
a bell. Paullini cites an instance of vomiting caused by music, and
Marcellus Donatus mentions swooning from the same cause. Many people
are unable to bear the noise caused by the grating of a pencil on a
slate, the filing of a saw, the squeak of a wheel turning about an
axle, the rubbing of pieces of paper together, and certain similar
sounds. Some persons find the tones of music very disagreeable, and
some animals, particularly dogs, are unable to endure it. In Albinus
the younger the slightest perceptible tones were sufficient to produce
an inexplicable anxiety. There was a certain woman of fifty who was
fond of the music of the clarionet and flute, but was not able to
listen to the sound of a bell or tambourine. Frank knew a man who ran
out of church at the beginning of the sounds of an organ, not being
able to tolerate them. Pope could not imagine music producing any
pleasure. The harmonica has been noticed to produce fainting in
females. Fischer says that music provokes sexual frenzy in elephants.
Gutfeldt speaks of a peculiar idiosyncrasy of sleep produced by hearing
music. Delisle mentions a young person who during a whole year passed
pieces of ascarides and tenia, during which time he could not endure
music.
Autenreith mentions the vibrations of a loud noise tickling the fauces
to such an extent as to provoke vomiting. There are some emotional
people who are particularly susceptible to certain expressions. The
widow of Jean Calas always fell in a faint when she heard the words of
the death-decree sounded on the street. There was a Hanoverian officer
in the Indian war against Typoo-Saib, a good and brave soldier, who
would feel sick if he heard the word "tiger" pronounced. It was said
that he had experienced the ravages of this beast.
The therapeutic value of music has long been known. For ages warriors
have been led to battle to the sounds of martial strains. David charmed
away Saul's evil spirit with his harp. Horace in his 32d Ode Book 1,
concludes his address to the lyre:--
"O laborum
Dulce lenimen mihicumque calve,
Rite vocanti;"
Or, as Kiessling of Berlin interprets:--
"O laborum,
Dulce lenimen medieumque, salve,
Rite vocanti."
--"O, of our troubles the sweet, the healing sedative, etc."
Homer, Plutarch, Theophrastus, and Galen say that music cures
rheumatism, the pests, and stings of reptiles, etc. Diemerbroeck,
Bonet, Baglivi, Kercher, and Desault mention the efficacy of melody in
phthisis, gout, hydrophobia, the bites of venomous reptiles, etc. There
is a case in the Lancet of a patient in convulsions who was cured in
the paroxysm by hearing the tones of music. Before the French Academy
of Sciences in 1708, and again in 1718, there was an instance of a
dancing-master stricken with violent fever and in a condition of
delirium, who recovered his senses and health on hearing melodious
music. There is little doubt of the therapeutic value of music, but
particularly do we find its value in instances of neuroses. The
inspiration offered by music is well-known, and it is doubtless a
stimulant to the intellectual work. Bacon, Milton, Warburton, and
Alfieri needed music to stimulate them in their labors, and it is said
that Bourdaloue always played an air on the violin before preparing to
write.
According to the American Medico-Surgical Bulletin, "Professor
Tarchanoff of Saint Petersburg has been investigating the influence of
music upon man and other animals. The subject is by no means a new one.
In recent times Dagiel and Fere have investigated the effect of music
upon the respirations, the pulse, and the muscular system in man.
Professor Tarchanoff made use of the ergograph of Mosso, and found that
if the fingers were completely fatigued, either by voluntary efforts or
by electric excitation, to the point of being incapable of making any
mark except a straight line on the registering cylinder, music had the
power of making the fatigue disappear, and the finger placed in the
ergograph again commenced to mark lines of different heights, according
to the amount of excitation. It was also found that music of a sad and
lugubrious character had the opposite effect, and could check or
entirely inhibit the contractions. Professor Tarchanoff does not
profess to give any positive explanation of these facts, but he
inclines to the view that 'the voluntary muscles, being furnished with
excitomotor and depressant fibers, act in relation to the music
similarly to the heart--that is to say, that joyful music resounds
along the excitomotor fibers, and sad music along the depressant or
inhibitory fibers.' Experiments on dogs showed that music was capable
of increasing the elimination of carbonic acid by 16.7 per cent, and of
increasing the consumption of oxygen by 20.1 per cent. It was also
found that music increased the functional activity of the skin.
Professor Tarchanoff claims as the result of these experiments that
music may fairly be regarded as a serious therapeutic agent, and that
it exercises a genuine and considerable influence over the functions of
the body. Facts of this kind are in no way surprising, and are chiefly
of interest as presenting some physiologic basis for phenomena that are
sufficiently obvious. The influence of the war-chant upon the warrior
is known even to savage tribes. We are accustomed to regard this
influence simply as an ordinary case of psychic stimuli producing
physiologic effects.
"Professor Tarchanoff evidently prefers to regard the phenomena as
being all upon the same plane, namely, that of physiology; and until we
know the difference between mind and body, and the principles of their
interaction, it is obviously impossible to controvert this view
successfully. From the immediately practical point of view we should
not ignore the possible value of music in some states of disease. In
melancholia and hysteria it is probably capable of being used with
benefit, and it is worth bearing in mind in dealing with insomnia.
Classical scholars will not forget that the singing of birds was tried
as a remedy to overcome the insomnia of Maecenas. Music is certainly a
good antidote to the pernicious habit of introspection and
self-analysis, which is often a curse both of the hysteric and of the
highly cultured. It would seem obviously preferable to have recourse to
music of a lively and cheerful character."
Idiosyncrasies of the visual organs are generally quite rare. It is
well-known that among some of the lower animals, e.g., the
turkey-cocks, buffaloes, and elephants, the color red is unendurable.
Buchner and Tissot mention a young boy who had a paroxysm if he viewed
anything red. Certain individuals become nauseated when they look for a
long time on irregular lines or curves, as, for examples, in
caricatures. Many of the older examples of idiosyncrasies of color are
nothing more than instances of color-blindness, which in those times
was unrecognized. Prochaska knew a woman who in her youth became
unconscious at the sight of beet-root, although in her later years she
managed to conquer this antipathy, but was never able to eat the
vegetable in question. One of the most remarkable forms of idiosyncrasy
on record is that of a student who was deprived of his senses by the
very sight of an old woman. On one occasion he was carried out from a
party in a dying state, caused, presumably, by the abhorred aspect of
the chaperons The Count of Caylus was always horror-stricken at the
sight of a Capuchin friar. He cured himself by a wooden image dressed
in the costume of this order placed in his room and constantly before
his view. It is common to see persons who faint at the sight of blood.
Analogous are the individuals who feel nausea in an hospital ward.
All Robert Boyle's philosophy could not make him endure the sight of a
spider, although he had no such aversion to toads, venomous snakes,
etc. Pare mentions a man who fainted at the sight of an eel, and
another who had convulsions at the sight of a carp. There is a record
of a young lady in France who fainted on seeing a boiled lobster.
Millingen cites the case of a man who fell into convulsions whenever he
saw a spider. A waxen one was made, which equally terrified him. When
he recovered, his error was pointed out to him, and the wax figure was
placed in his hand without causing dread, and henceforth the living
insect no longer disturbed him. Amatus Lusitanus relates the case of a
monk who fainted when he beheld a rose, and never quitted his cell when
that flower was in bloom. Scaliger, the great scholar, who had been a
soldier a considerable portion of his life, confesses that he could not
look on a water-cress without shuddering, and remarks: "I, who despise
not only iron, but even thunderbolts, who in two sieges (in one of
which I commanded) was the only one who did not complain of the food as
unfit and horrible to eat, am seized with such a shuddering horror at
the sight of a water-cress that I am forced to go away." One of his
children was in the same plight as regards the inoffensive vegetable,
cabbage. Scaliger also speaks of one of his kinsmen who fainted at the
sight of a lily. Vaughheim, a great huntsman of Hanover, would faint at
the sight of a roasted pig. Some individuals have been disgusted at the
sight of eggs. There is an account of a sensible man who was terrified
at the sight of a hedgehog, and for two years was tormented by a
sensation as though one was gnawing at his bowels. According to Boyle,
Lord Barrymore, a veteran warrior and a person of strong mind, swooned
at the sight of tansy. The Duke d'Epernon swooned on beholding a
leveret, although a hare did not produce the same effect. Schenck tells
of a man who swooned at the sight of pork. The Ephemerides contains an
account of a person who lost his voice at the sight of a crab, and also
cites cases of antipathy to partridges, a white hen, to a serpent, and
to a toad. Lehman speaks of an antipathy to horses; and in his
observations Lyser has noticed aversion to the color purple. It is a
strange fact that the three greatest generals of recent years,
Wellington, Napoleon, and Roberts, could never tolerate the sight of a
cat, and Henry III of France could not bear this animal in his room. We
learn of a Dane of herculean frame who had a horror of cats. He was
asked to a supper at which, by way of a practical joke, a live cat 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 who was made sick by the slightest bit of
nutmeg. Tissot observed vomiting in one of his friends after the
ingestion of the slightest amount of sugar. Ritte mentions a similar
instance. Roose has seen vomiting produced in a woman by the slightest
dose of distilled water of linden. There is also mentioned a person in
whom orange-flower water produced the same effect. Dejean cites a case
in which honey taken internally or applied externally acted like
poison. It is said that the celebrated Haen would always have
convulsions after eating half a dozen strawberries. Earle and Halifax
attended a child for kidney-irritation produced by strawberries, and
this was the invariable result of the ingestion of this fruit. The
authors personally know of a family the male members of which for
several generations could not eat strawberries without symptoms of
poisoning. The female members were exempt from the idiosyncrasy. A
little boy of this family was killed by eating a single berry. Whytt
mentions a woman of delicate constitution and great sensibility of the
digestive tract in whom foods difficult of digestion provoked spasms,
which were often followed by syncopes. Bayle describes a man who
vomited violently after taking coffee. Wagner mentions a person in whom
a most insignificant dose of manna had the same effect. Preslin speaks
of a woman who invariably had a hemorrhage after swallowing a small
quantity of vinegar. According to Zimmerman, some people are unable to
wash their faces on account of untoward symptoms. According to Ganbius,
the juice of a citron applied to the skin of one of his acquaintances
produced violent rigors.
Brasavolus says that Julia, wife of Frederick, King of Naples, had such
an aversion to meat that she could not carry it to her mouth without
fainting. The anatomist Gavard was not able to eat apples without
convulsions and vomiting. It is said that Erasmus was made ill by the
ingestion of fish; but this same philosopher, who was cured of a malady
by laughter, expressed his appreciation by an elegy on the folly. There
is a record of a person who could not eat almonds without a scarlet
rash immediately appearing upon the face. Marcellus Donatus knew a
young man who could not eat an egg without his lips swelling and purple
spots appearing on his face. Smetius mentions a person in whom the
ingestion of fried eggs was often followed by syncope. Brunton has seen
a case of violent vomiting and purging after the slightest bit of egg.
On one occasion this person was induced to eat a small morsel of cake
on the statement that it contained no egg, and, although fully
believing the words of his host, he subsequently developed prominent
symptoms, due to the trace of egg that was really in the cake. A letter
from a distinguished litterateur to Sir Morell Mackenzie gives a
striking example of the idiosyncrasy to eggs transmitted through four
generations. Being from such a reliable source, it has been deemed
advisable to quote the account in full: "My daughter tells me that you
are interested in the ill-effects which the eating of eggs has upon
her, upon me, and upon my father before us. I believe my grandfather,
as well as my father, could not eat eggs with impunity. As to my father
himself, he is nearly eighty years old; he has not touched an egg since
he was a young man; he can, therefore, give no precise or reliable
account of the symptoms the eating of eggs produce in him. But it was
not the mere 'stomach-ache' that ensued, but much more immediate and
alarming disturbances. As for me, the peculiarity was discovered when I
was a spoon-fed child. On several occasions it was noticed (that is my
mother's account) that I felt ill without apparent cause; afterward it
was recollected that a small part of a yolk of an egg had been given to
me. Eclaircissement came immediately after taking a single spoonful of
egg. I fell into such an alarming state that the doctor was sent for.
The effect seems to have been just the same that it produces upon my
daughter now,--something that suggested brain-congestion and
convulsions. From time to time, as a boy and a young man, I have eaten
an egg by way of trying it again, but always with the same result--a
feeling that I had been poisoned; and yet all the while I liked eggs.
Then I never touched them for years. Later I tried again, and I find
the ill-effects are gradually wearing off. With my daughter it is
different; she, I think, becomes more susceptible as time goes on, and
the effect upon her is more violent than in my case at any time.
Sometimes an egg has been put with coffee unknown to her, and she has
been seen immediately afterward with her face alarmingly changed--eyes
swollen and wild, the face crimson, the look of apoplexy. This is her
own account: 'An egg in any form causes within a few minutes great
uneasiness and restlessness, the throat becomes contracted and painful,
the face crimson, and the veins swollen. These symptoms have been so
severe as to suggest that serious consequences might follow.' To this I
may add that in her experience and my own, the newer the egg, the worse
the consequences."
Hutchinson speaks of a Member of Parliament who had an idiosyncrasy as
regards parsley. After the ingestion of this herb in food he always had
alarming attacks of sickness and pain in the abdomen, attended by
swelling of the tongue and lips and lividity of the face. This same man
could not take the smallest quantity of honey, and certain kinds of
fruit always poisoned him. There was a collection of instances of
idiosyncrasy in the British Medical Journal, 1859, which will be
briefly given in the following lines: One patient could not eat rice in
any shape without extreme distress. From the description given of his
symptoms, spasmodic asthma seemed to be the cause of his discomfort. On
one occasion when at a dinner-party he felt the symptoms of
rice-poisoning come on, and, although he had partaken of no dish
ostensibly containing rice, was, as usual, obliged to retire from the
table. Upon investigation it appeared that some white soup with which
he had commenced his meal had been thickened with ground rice. As in
the preceding case there was another gentleman who could not eat rice
without a sense of suffocation. On one occasion he took lunch with a
friend in chambers, partaking only of simple bread and cheese and
bottled beer. On being seized with the usual symptoms of rice-poisoning
he informed his friend of his peculiarity of constitution, and the
symptoms were explained by the fact that a few grains of rice had been
put into each bottle of beer for the purpose of exciting a secondary
fermentation. The same author speaks of a gentleman under treatment for
stricture who could not eat figs without experiencing the most
unpleasant formication of the palate and fauces. The fine dust from
split peas caused the same sensation, accompanied with running at the
nose; it was found that the father of the patient suffered from
hay-fever in certain seasons. He also says a certain young lady after
eating eggs suffered from swelling of the tongue and throat,
accompanied by "alarming illness," and there is recorded in the same
paragraph a history of another young girl in whom the ingestion of
honey, and especially honey-comb, produced swelling of the tongue,
frothing of the mouth, and blueness of the fingers. The authors know of
a gentleman in whom sneezing is provoked on the ingestion of chocolate
in any form. There was another instance--in a member of the medical
profession--who suffered from urticaria after eating veal. Veal has the
reputation of being particularly indigestible, and the foregoing
instance of the production of urticaria from its use is doubtless not
an uncommon one.
Overton cites a striking case of constitutional peculiarity or
idiosyncrasy in which wheat flour in any form, the staff of life, an
article hourly prayed for by all Christian nations as the first and
most indispensable of earthly blessings, proved to one unfortunate
individual a prompt and dreadful poison. The patient's name was David
Waller, and he was born in Pittsylvania County, Va., about the year
1780. He was the eighth child of his parents, and, together with all
his brothers and sisters, was stout and healthy. At the time of
observation Waller was about fifty years of age. He had dark hair, gray
eyes, dark complexion, was of bilious and irascible temperament, well
formed, muscular and strong, and in all respects healthy as any man,
with the single exception of his peculiar idiosyncrasy. He had been the
subject of but few diseases, although he was attacked by the epidemic
of 1816. From the history of his parents and an inquiry into the health
of his ancestry, nothing could be found which could establish the fact
of heredity in his peculiar disposition. Despite every advantage of
stature, constitution, and heredity, David Waller was through life,
from his cradle to his grave, the victim of what is possibly a unique
idiosyncrasy of constitution. In his own words he declared: "Of two
equal quantities of tartar and wheat flour, not more than a dose of the
former, he would rather swallow the tartar than the wheat flour." If he
ate flour in any form or however combined, in the smallest quantity, in
two minutes or less he would have painful itching over the whole body,
accompanied by severe colic and tormina in the bowels, great sickness
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