112 INSTANCES OF ANTIPATHIES 



in most instances we know that they are the result 

 of pre-natal suggestion. 



The cases of people who fainted or went into con- 

 vulsions at the sight of a pig or a cat remind me of 

 an instance recorded a few years ago of a healthy, 

 strong, working Devonshire farmer, who was affected 

 in this way every time he saw a snake. He would 

 stop, the implement would drop from his hand, and 

 he would stand still trembling, the sweat pouring 

 from his skin; and after some minutes he would 

 slowly make his way home, and, throwing himself on 

 a bed, lie like a log until the following day, when he 

 would get up restored and go back as usual to work. 



And this case serves to remind me of a better one, 

 since I knew the man intimately from earliest child- 

 hood who suffered from an antipathy of this kind. 

 He was perfectly healthy and normal in every way 

 but this, and was a good fellow, although rather 

 quarrelsome in his cups. Venomous snakes, spiders 

 (and very big they were in that land), scorpions and 

 centipedes were nothing to him, but the sight of a 

 poor harmless toad — and toads were very abundant 

 — would fill him with an extraordinary loathing and 

 horror. He tried to explain the sensation produced 

 on him to me, but could not, and all I could make 

 out from his confused attempts at doing so was that 

 it was a dreadful cold creepy sensation all over him, 

 as if he were being changed into a toad himself. 

 Also that he had experienced it from early childhood. 



This subject of antipathies has been brought in 

 here for the reason that in some cases the person thus 



