But this I know, and that full
I do not like you, Doctor Fell."

Some conditions often called idiosyncrasies appear to be, and doubtless
are, due to disordered intellect. But they should not be confounded with
those which are inherent in the individual and real in character. Thus,
they are frequently merely imaginary, there being no foundation for them
except in the perverted mind of the subject; at other times they are
induced by a morbid attention being directed continually to some one or
more organs or functions. The protean forms under which hypochondria
appears, and the still more varied manifestations of hysteria, are
rather due to the reaction ensuing between mental disorder on the one
part, and functional disorder on the other, than to that quasi normal
peculiarity of organization recognized as idiosyncrasy.

Thus, upon one occasion I was consulted in the case of a lady who it was
said had an idiosyncrasy that prevented her drinking water. Every time
she took the smallest quantity of this liquid into her stomach it was at
once rejected, with many evident signs of nausea and pain. The patient
was strongly hysterical, and I soon made up my mind that either the case
was one of simple hysterical vomiting, or that the alleged inability was
assumed. The latter turned out to be the truth. I found that she drank
in private all the water she wanted, and that what she drank publicly
she threw up by tickling the fauces with her finger-nail when no one was
looking.

The idiosyncrasies of individuals are not matters for ridicule, however
absurd they may appear to be. On the contrary, they deserve, and should
receive, the careful consideration of the physician, for much is to
be learned from them, both in preventing and in treating diseases. In