ANTIPATHIES iii 



which they can't explain or which does not conform 

 to natural laws known to them. All the same we all 

 do know that antipathies do exist, and have read of 

 James I. and his insane terror at the sight of a drawn 

 sword; of Tycho Brahe fainting at the sight of a 

 fox; of Henry III. of France fainting at the sight of 

 the harmless cat (our own Lord Roberts was almost 

 as bad) ; of Marshal d' Albert fainting at the sight of 

 a pig, and numerous other cases of a like kind— 

 swoonings, convulsions and what not at the sight of 

 this or that beast or reptile or insect, or at some 

 inanimate object, or on touching some abhorrent 

 thing. These are the classical instances which have 

 been told in a hundred books, and what the sceptical 

 scientist has to say of them I don't know, nor 

 does it concern me, since I am not concerned either 

 with the books or him, but in my own humble 

 sphere, as field naturalist, I follow the light of 

 Nature alone. 



And what need is there for these old instances in 

 books and the opinions of scientists, when such cases 

 are continually cropping up or exist, or have been 

 known to exist, in every parish in the country? If 

 it had been necessary for some clerk or semi-official 

 person to give an account of them in every village 

 and town in the land, the records of half a century 

 would in each such centre occupy a shelf full of books 

 or annals. But it should also be the duty of the 

 recorder to trace the antipathy, also other abnor- 

 malities, such as strange and monstrous births, to 

 their origins, so far as they may be traced; and 



