i8o FLORA OF THE 



do not get diseases so frequently. What would be more 

 natural, in those intensely superstitious times, than for 

 him and others to imagine that the horns on the pole 

 were the real cause of all this luck? 



I shall now quote a case in our own civilized times 

 to show how prevalent this 'post hoc' theory is. 



I have heard of a young man who, when he enters 

 a room where hilarity is going on, seems to throw a 

 damp sheet over the spirits of everyone — all hilarity 

 ceases ! Very probably he is of a silent, serious dis- 

 position — he tJiinks more than he talks. And so, when 

 he appears, a widespread shyness and gloom falls on the 

 meeting. At last someone whispered, " I have noticed 



that whenever Mr. appears everybody ceases talking, 



and there is a sort of damper thrown over our meeting." 

 After that more attention was directed to this curious 

 phenomenon, and naturally everybody now sees it is quite 

 true ! There must be, they imagine, some extraordinary 

 influence that he produces as soon as he appears. He 

 is now become a marked man, and one to be avoided, 

 as possessing some incomprehensible evil influence ! In 

 short he is now what the Neapolitans would call a 

 'jettatore.' ^ 



Some such theory as that of ' post hoc, propter hoc 

 would seem sufficiently to explain the genesis of the use 



' This is not a story of hundreds of years B.C., in Assyria, but one of A.l). 

 1892, in Britain. The supernatural has still a fascinating grip of people's 

 minds. 



