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.
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