Erasmus, though a native of Rotterdam, had such an aversion to fish,
that the smell of it threw him into a fever.
Ambrose Paré mentions a gentleman, who never could see an eel without
fainting.
There is an account of another gentleman, who would fall into
convulsions at the sight of a carp.
A lady, a native of France, always fainted on seeing boiled lobsters.
Other persons of the same country experienced the same inconvenience
from the smell of roses, though they were particularly partial to the
odour of jonquils or tuberoses.
Joseph Scaliger and Peter Abono never could drink milk.
Cardan was particularly disgusted at the sight of eggs.
Uladislaus, king of Poland, could not bear to see apples.
If an apple was shown to Chesne, secretary to Francis I., he bled at the
nose.
A gentleman, in the court of the emperor Ferdinand, would bleed at the
nose on hearing the mewing of a cat, however great the distance might be
from him.
Henry III. of France could never sit in a room with a cat.
The duke of Schomberg had the same aversion.
M. de Lancre gives an account of a very sensible man, who was so
terrified at seeing a hedgehog, that for two years he imagined his
bowels were gnawed by such an animal.
The same author was intimate with a very brave officer, who was so
terrified at the sight of a mouse, that he never dared to look at one
unless he had his sword in his hand.
M. Vangheim, a great huntsman in Hanover, would faint, or, if he had
sufficient time, would run away at the sight of a roasted pig.
John Rol, a gentleman in Alcantara, would swoon on hearing the word
_lana_, wool, pronounced, although his cloak was woollen.
The philosophical Boyle could not conquer a strong aversion to the sound
of water running through a pipe.
La Mothe le Vayer could not endure the sound of musical instruments,
though he experienced a lively pleasure whenever it thundered.
The author of the Turkish Spy tells us that he would rather encounter a
lion in the deserts of Arabia, provided he had but a sword in his hand,
than feel a spider crawling on him in the dark. He observes, that there
is no reason to be given for these secret dislikes. He humorously
attributes them to the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul; and
as regarded himself, he supposed he had been a fly, before he came into
his body, and that having been frequently persecuted with spiders, he
still retained the dread of his old enemy.
* * * * *