A NEW DISEASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1262, 6 November 1884, Page 3

A NEW DISEASE.

Attention has lately been drawn in one of our medical contemporaries to a disense met with in Siberia, known to the Russians by the name of “ Miryacii.” The person affected seems compelled to imitate anything be hears or sees, and an in ten-s’mg account is given of a steward who was reduced to a perfect state of misery by his inability to avoid imitating everything he heard or saw. One day the captain of the steamer, running up to him, clapping his hands at the same time, accidentally slipped and fell hard on the deck. Without having been touched, the steward immediately clapped his hands and shouted ; then, in helpless imitation, he too fell as hard and almost in the same manner and position as the captain. This disease lias been met with in Java, where it is known as “ Bata.” In the case of a female servant who had the same irresistible tendency to imitate, one day at dessert her mistress, ■ .wishing to exhibit this peculiarity, and catching the woman’s eye, suddenly reached across: the table, and seizing a large French plum, made pgetence to swallow it whole. The woman rushed at the dish and put a plum in her month, and after severe choking and semi-asphyxia, succeeded in swallowing it, but her mistress never tried the experiment again. London Medical Record.