SINGULAR ANTIPATHIES. 431 Poor Knights on the royal establishment, are repaired at the expence of the crown. Remarkable ANTIPATHIES. It has been remarked, that the bravest and most intrepid of men have been fubject to Antipathies, as well as the pufillanimous and thofe of weak conftitutions; witness the duke of Epernon, whom no one ever accused of having been overcome in an instant in the most perilous fituations, and who yet fainted at the fight of a levret. Precifely the fame may be faid of Cefar d'Abret, who was fick whenever he faw a young wild boar, or fucking pig, at table; and whom it was easy to releafe from this weakness inftantaneously by cutting off the head of the animal, for this was the only part of its body by which his painful fenfations were occafioned. Deflandes has related feveral facts of this kind in a letter printed in the Mercure de France, for June 1727. Among others, he cites this, of which he affures us he was witness. An officer of the artillery, he fays, turned pale, and grew fick whenever a wifp of linen was cut in his prefence. In vain, he adds, he tried every poffible effort to furmount this fpecies of antipathy: he only incurred a riik of lofing life. The celebrated Peter d'Apono, who profefied, and exercifed with great diftinétion, the practice of medicine at Bologne, could not fee cheese, nor even fmell its odour without fainting. Martin Schoockius, profeffor of philofophy at Groningen, was under the fame misfortune; and it induced him to write a treatise on the fubject, entitled, De Averfione Cafei. Men of the greatest minds have had fimilar weakneffes. We are affured that Thomas Hobbes would fall into a fwoon, if left without light in the night (but from the reports of Hobbes' biographers it feems probable that this fenfation fhould be attributed rather to intellectual de preffion preffion than to any physical antipathy; like Johnfon, Hobbes difliked to hear of death); alfo that Tycho Brahé grew fick if he faw a hare or a fox; and that Bayle was feized with convulfions when he heard the noife of water falling from a rain spout. The Journal de Medicine for the month of August 1760 relates that the abbé Devilledieu had, from his infancy, an infurmountable averfion from all food derived from an animal having once had life. Neither the careffes of his pa rents, it is faid, nor the threats of his preceptors, could prevail, even at a tender age, over the firength of this feeling. It was the fame during the progrefs of his youth; and, even till he was thirty years of age, he fed only upon eggs and vegetables. Preffed, however, to make fome efforts against this habit, he was difpofed to yield to the reiterated folicitations of several perfons who had influence over his mind. He began by taking foup made with beef and mutton. Infenfibly, he grew to eat these meats; and, for fome time, he used them without inconvenience. Little by little, he grew fat; but a plethora foon followed: he loft his fleep, and fell into a state of phrenzy, followed by convulfions; confequences, adds the writer of this article, by which we ought not to be surprised. His new food, obferves the latter, furnished him with juices more abundant than his former. Hence the flight fever he had occafioned a rarefaction of his fluids, and a confiderable diffenfion in his veffels, a diftenfion which extended to those of the brain, where the danger was greateft. There followed a ftrong compreffion of the fmaller veffels of the nerves, and nothing more was requifite to disturb the economy of this vifcera, produce an inflammation, and convulfions which became fatal to the patient in fpite of an iffue on the arm, two on the feet, one on the jugular, the ufe of embrocations and bathings, which only procured him temporary tranquillity and momentary fleep. The following EXTRAORDINARY ANTIPATHIES. 433 is another phenomenon, not so fatal indeed, but as equally if not more extraordinary. A very amiable lady, much cherished by her husband (a particular which must be kept in mind, not because it is a rare one, but because it adds to the remarkableness of the phenomenon in queftion) was unable, without becoming ill, not only to eat, but even to look on veal, in whatever manner it was prepared. This antipathy went fo far that, if it were brought to table, fhe would become unable to rife, and in need of being carried away to bed. The mere odour of this meat produced the fame terrible effect. One day, veal foup was mixed with the beef fhe was to take. Scarcely had fhe fwallowed a few drops, when her hands grew ftiff, her countenance pale, and her look wild: terrible convulfions followed; and the fuffered from the injury during three days. Her husband thought that, by eating veal in her prefence, he should infenfibly accuftom her to its ufe. The event was otherwise. He became himself the object of her invincible hatred; his prefence produced the fame fymptoms and convulfions as that of veal; and though this man loved her to distraction, fhe detefted and could not fupport his fight. If the fact which follows, and with this article fhall be closed, be not a fraud, it is certainly one of the most extraordinary that can be produced: it is reported by George Hannæus, in the Acts of Copenhagen, for the year 1676. One Olaus, fays he, whom, for fome time paft, we saw begging for alms, had fuch an aversion from his name that he earnestly preffed those who spoke with him, and to whom he was known, not to name him. Thofe who, through. careleffnefs or malice, called him Olaus, occafioned him a fudden fhock. The firft time he heard the word pronounced, he began to tremble, the fecond time, he hung down his head, groaning, and fhowing figns of indignation; if VOL. I. No. 10. 3 K the the irritation was further continued, he ftruck his head against the walls and against the stones and fell, as if in a fit of apoplexy and epilepfy. When not exposed to this trial, his health, adds Hannæus, was good. The Remarkable Hiflory of ErONINA, the amiable, Wife of SABINUS, a Man of High Quality, who claimed the Roman Empire. DURING [From Mifs Hay's F.mile Biography] URING the ftruggles of Otho, Vitellius, and Vefpafian, for the Sovereignty of Rome, and in the unfettled ftate of the empire, Sabinus, a native of Langres, an ambitious and wealthy man, of high quality, put in his claim, among others, to the poffeffion of the throne. Encouraged by his countrymen to this bold undertaking, he pretended, by cafting an imputation on the chastity of his grandmother, to trace his lineage from Julius Cæfar. Having revolted against the Romans, he caufed himself, by his followers, to be faluted emperor. But his temerity and prefumption quickly received a check his troops, who were defeated, and scattered in all directions, betook themfelves to flight: while of thofe who fell into the hands of their purfuers, not one was fpared. In the heart of Gaul, Sabinus might have found fafety, had his tenderness for his wife permitted him to feck it. Efpoufed to Eponina, a lady of admirable beauty and accomplishments, from whom he could not prevail upon himself to live at a diftance, he retired from the field of battle to his country-houfe. Having here called together his fervants, and the remnant of his people, he informed them of his difafter, and of the mifcarriage of his enterprife; while he declared to them his resolution of putting a voluntary period to his life, to escape the tortures prepared for him by the victors, and avoid the fate of his unfortunate companions. He proceeded to thank them HISTORY OF THE AMIABLE EPONINA. 435 them for their fervices, after which he gave them a folemn discharge: he then ordered fire to be fet to his mansion, in which he shut himself up; and of this stately edifice in a few hours nothing remained but a heap of afhes and ruins. The news of the melancholy catastrophe being spread abroad, reached the ears of Eponina, who during the preceding events, had remained at Rome. Her grief and defpair, on learning the fate of a husband whom the dearly loved, and who had fallen a victim to his tenderness for her, were too poignant to be long fupported. In vain her friends and acquaintance offered her confolation; their efforts to reconcile her to her lofs ferved to aggravate her diftrefs. She determined to abstain from nourishment, and to re-unite herself in the grave to him without whom she felt life to be a burthen. For three days the persevered in her refolution. On the fourth, Martial, a freedman, who had been a favourite domeftic in the service of her husband, defired to be admitted by his mistress to a private conference, on affairs of great importance. In this interview, Eponina learned, with an emotion that had nearly fhaken to annihilation her languid and debilitated frame, that Sabinus, whom she fo bitterly lamented, was ftill living, and concealed in a fubterraneous cavern under the ruins of his houfe, where he waited with impatience to receive and embrace his beloved and faithful wife. This fcheme had been concerted in confidence with two of his domeftics, in whofe attachment Sabinus entirely 'confided. It had been hitherto concealed from Eponina, that, through her unaffected grief on the fuppofed death of her husband, greater credit might be given to a report on which his prefervation entirely depended. To these welcome. tidings, Martial prefumed to add his advice, that his lady |