Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [299]
spasms, which were often followed by syncopes. Bayle describes a man who vomited violently after taking coffee. Wagner mentions a person in whom a most insignificant dose of manna had the same effect. Preslin speaks of a woman who invariably had a hemorrhage after swallowing a small quantity of vinegar. According to Zimmerman, some people are unable to wash their faces on account of untoward symptoms. According to Ganbius, the juice of a citron applied to the skin of one of his acquaintances produced violent rigors.
Brasavolus says that Julia, wife of Frederick, King of Naples, had such an aversion to meat that she could not carry it to her mouth without fainting. The anatomist Gavard was not able to eat apples without convulsions and vomiting. It is said that Erasmus was made ill by the ingestion of fish; but this same philosopher, who was cured of a malady by laughter, expressed his appreciation by an elegy on the folly. There is a record of a person who could not eat almonds without a scarlet rash immediately appearing upon the face. Marcellus Donatus knew a young man who could not eat an egg without his lips swelling and purple spots appearing on his face. Smetius mentions a person in whom the ingestion of fried eggs was often followed by syncope. Brunton has seen a case of violent vomiting and purging after the slightest bit of egg. On one occasion this person was induced to eat a small morsel of cake on the statement that it contained no egg, and, although fully believing the words of his host, he subsequently developed prominent symptoms, due to the trace of egg that was really in the cake. A letter from a distinguished litterateur to Sir Morell Mackenzie gives a striking example of the idiosyncrasy to eggs transmitted through four generations. Being from such a reliable source, it has been deemed advisable to quote the account in full: "My daughter tells me that you are interested in the ill-effects which the eating of eggs has upon her, upon me, and upon my father before us. I believe my grandfather, as well as my father, could not eat eggs with impunity. As to my father himself, he is nearly eighty years old; he has not touched an egg since he was a young man; he can, therefore, give no precise or reliable account of the symptoms the eating of eggs produce in him. But it was not the mere 'stomach-ache' that ensued, but much more immediate and alarming disturbances. As for me, the peculiarity was discovered when I was a spoon-fed child. On several occasions it was noticed (that is my mother's account) that I felt ill without apparent cause; afterward it was recollected that a small part of a yolk of an egg had been given to me. Eclaircissement came immediately after taking a single spoonful of egg. I fell into such an alarming state that the doctor was sent for. The effect seems to have been just the same that it produces upon my daughter now,--something that suggested brain-congestion and convulsions. From time to time, as a boy and a young man, I have eaten an egg by way of trying it again, but always with the same result--a feeling that I had been poisoned; and yet all the while I liked eggs. Then I never touched them for years. Later I tried again, and I find the ill-effects are gradually wearing off. With my daughter it is different; she, I think, becomes more susceptible as time goes on, and the effect upon her is more violent than in my case at any time. Sometimes an egg has been put with coffee unknown to her, and she has been seen immediately afterward with her face alarmingly changed--eyes swollen and wild, the face crimson, the look of apoplexy. This is her own account: 'An egg in any form causes within a few minutes great uneasiness and restlessness, the throat becomes contracted and painful, the face crimson, and the veins swollen. These symptoms have been so severe as to suggest that serious consequences might follow.' To this I may add that in her experience and my own, the newer the egg, the worse the consequences."
Hutchinson speaks of a Member of Parliament who had an idiosyncrasy as regards
Brasavolus says that Julia, wife of Frederick, King of Naples, had such an aversion to meat that she could not carry it to her mouth without fainting. The anatomist Gavard was not able to eat apples without convulsions and vomiting. It is said that Erasmus was made ill by the ingestion of fish; but this same philosopher, who was cured of a malady by laughter, expressed his appreciation by an elegy on the folly. There is a record of a person who could not eat almonds without a scarlet rash immediately appearing upon the face. Marcellus Donatus knew a young man who could not eat an egg without his lips swelling and purple spots appearing on his face. Smetius mentions a person in whom the ingestion of fried eggs was often followed by syncope. Brunton has seen a case of violent vomiting and purging after the slightest bit of egg. On one occasion this person was induced to eat a small morsel of cake on the statement that it contained no egg, and, although fully believing the words of his host, he subsequently developed prominent symptoms, due to the trace of egg that was really in the cake. A letter from a distinguished litterateur to Sir Morell Mackenzie gives a striking example of the idiosyncrasy to eggs transmitted through four generations. Being from such a reliable source, it has been deemed advisable to quote the account in full: "My daughter tells me that you are interested in the ill-effects which the eating of eggs has upon her, upon me, and upon my father before us. I believe my grandfather, as well as my father, could not eat eggs with impunity. As to my father himself, he is nearly eighty years old; he has not touched an egg since he was a young man; he can, therefore, give no precise or reliable account of the symptoms the eating of eggs produce in him. But it was not the mere 'stomach-ache' that ensued, but much more immediate and alarming disturbances. As for me, the peculiarity was discovered when I was a spoon-fed child. On several occasions it was noticed (that is my mother's account) that I felt ill without apparent cause; afterward it was recollected that a small part of a yolk of an egg had been given to me. Eclaircissement came immediately after taking a single spoonful of egg. I fell into such an alarming state that the doctor was sent for. The effect seems to have been just the same that it produces upon my daughter now,--something that suggested brain-congestion and convulsions. From time to time, as a boy and a young man, I have eaten an egg by way of trying it again, but always with the same result--a feeling that I had been poisoned; and yet all the while I liked eggs. Then I never touched them for years. Later I tried again, and I find the ill-effects are gradually wearing off. With my daughter it is different; she, I think, becomes more susceptible as time goes on, and the effect upon her is more violent than in my case at any time. Sometimes an egg has been put with coffee unknown to her, and she has been seen immediately afterward with her face alarmingly changed--eyes swollen and wild, the face crimson, the look of apoplexy. This is her own account: 'An egg in any form causes within a few minutes great uneasiness and restlessness, the throat becomes contracted and painful, the face crimson, and the veins swollen. These symptoms have been so severe as to suggest that serious consequences might follow.' To this I may add that in her experience and my own, the newer the egg, the worse the consequences."
Hutchinson speaks of a Member of Parliament who had an idiosyncrasy as regards