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Show PERSONAL PECULIARITIES About four years ago I had a lad in my employ who had the habit when unexpectedly spoken to of pricking up his ears in so decisive a manner as to remind one of Puss or of Tray when suddenly called. Marie Louise, the second wife of the great Napoleon, was in the habit of amusing the ladies of her court at their private soirees by turning her ears almost completely round, and in a manner closing them up. She did thus by a peculiar motion of the jaw, and she is said to have prided herself on the exploit not a little. A man I knew well wore an enormous shock of raven hair, and would allow himself to be lifted by the hair from the ground by any one who was strong enough to do it, and to be swung to and fro like a pendulum, or to be dragged along the floor. The faculty of sleeping at will was one of the endowments of the first Napoleon, who it is said could sleep any length of time, long or short, and awake at the time, almost to a minute, he had resolved upon. Among the muscular movements not common, I have noticed several instances of persons who could throw back the four fingers of either hand until they stood quite perpendicular to the back of the hand and wrist. Other instances I have seen, though but a few, of persons who can project the lower joint of the thumb almost into the hollow of the palm. In neither of these cases is the use or the ordinary symmetry of the hand at all affected. Of left-handed people we have all seen many, and they abound among the working classes; but of the artihandist, or both-handed, that is, of persons who could do everything with either hand, as well with one as the other, I have known but one in the whole course of my life. This was an orphan boy who had no parental care, but had been left almost to himself from infancy. Quick, active, and sharp-witted, he had taught himself many things tolerably well, could draw fairly, could play the fiddle and the flute, and wrote admirably and with unrivaled rapidity with either hand. There are many persons who, from causes they can never explain, have a repugnance, almost amounting to horror in some cases, for certain animals. The French General [unreadable], who was as cool as a cucumber amidst a storm of bullies, and would face the cannon's mouth unmoved, would take to his heels at the sight of a live frog,, and would not recover his equanimity for hours. I have known a man who could not touch mutton, however cooked, while he would eat heartily of any other meat. Some there are in whom the thought of eating hare or rabbit [incites] loathing; some who would starve rather than eat shell-fish of any kind; and there are not a few to whom butter and cheese are abominations. Others are equally prejudiced against certain vegetables, but why or wherefore they can never tell you. -- Leisure Hour |