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.
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