A Queer Disease

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 63, 6 November 1884, Page 3

A Queer Disease

Attention has lately been drawn to a disease met in Siberia, known to tbe Russians by the na««e of " Miryachit.". The person affected se«*ms compelled to imitate anything: he hears or and an interesting account is m von ,ot a steward, who was reduced to a. perfect ,. state -of misery by his inability to avoid imitating eVery thing- he heard or saw. One day the captain of the steamer, running : up to htm," suddenly claspinghjs hands at the same time, accidentally slipped, and te\l hard on the j daefe Without hevingr been touched, thff" steward instantly clapped his hands and shouted j then, in helpless , imitation^, he \oo fell as hard and almost precisely in the same manner end as the captain. This disease has been met with in Java, where It 'is known as " Lata." In the case ot a female servant who had the Bgme irresistible tendency to imitate, one,. day at dessert, her mistress wishing to exhibit this peculiarity t^dqatchlng the women's eye sudd anly reecbed.acroas the table, and siezing a large .French plum, made pretense to^H^ailow it whole. The woman rtlSbe3 at :: Ac-dish irod put a plum in her month, and, after severe choking r femt-asi^vxia, succeeded in jNft&oinng U> bu'i her mistress never tried the experiment again. rit- r. >rr> ' - • " — - - : —