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Page 45
[Footnote 2: "Observations upon the Korean Coast, Japanese-Korean
Ports, and Siberia, made during a journey from the Asiatic
Station to the United States, through Siberia to Europe, June 3
to September 8, 1882." Published by the United States Navy
Department, Washington, 1883, pp. 51.]
"We afterward witnessed an incident which illustrated the extent of
his disability. The captain of the steamer, running up to him,
suddenly clapping his hands at the same time, accidentally slipped and
fell hard on the deck; without having been touched by the captain, the
steward instantly clapped his bands and shouted, and then, in
powerless imitation, he too fell as hard and almost precisely in the
same manner and position as the captain. In speaking of the steward's
disorder, the captain of the general staff stated that it was not
uncommon in Siberia; that he had seen a number of cases of it, and
that it was commonest about Yakutsk, where the winter cold is extreme.
Both sexes were subject to it, but men much less than women. It was
known to Russians by the name of 'miryachit'".
So far as I am aware--and I have looked carefully through several
books of travel in Siberia--no account of this curious disease has
been hitherto published.
The description given by the naval officers at once, however, brings
to mind the remarks made by the late Dr. George M. Beard, before the
meeting of the American Neurological Association in 1880, relative to
the "Jumpers" or "Jumping Frenchmen" of Maine and northern New
Hampshire.[3]
[Footnote 3: "Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases," vol. vii.,
1880, p. 487.]
In June, 1880, Dr. Beard visited Moosehead Lake, found the "Jumpers,"
and experimented with them. He ascertained that whatever order was
given them was at once obeyed. Thus, one of the jumpers who was
sitting in a chair with a knife in his hand was told to throw it, and
he threw it quickly, so that it stuck in a beam opposite; at the same
time he repeated the order to throw it with a cry of alarm not unlike
that of hysteria or epilepsy. He also threw away his pipe, which he
was filling with tobacco, when he was slapped upon the shoulder. Two
jumpers standing near each other were told to strike, and they struck
each other very forcibly. One jumper, when standing by a window, was
suddenly commanded by a person on the other side of the window to
jump, and he jumped up half a foot from the floor, repeating the
order. When the commands are uttered in a quick, loud voice, the
jumper repeats the order. When told to strike he strikes, when told to
throw he throws whatever he may happen to have in his hand. Dr. Beard
tried this power of repetition with the first part of the first line
of Virgil's "�neid" and the first part of the first line of Homer's
"Iliad," and out-of-the-way words of the English language with which
the jumper could not be familiar, and he repeated or echoed the sound
of the word as it came to him in a quick, sharp voice, at the same
time he jumped, or struck, or threw, or raised his shoulders, or made
some other violent muscular motion. They could not help repeating the
word or sound that came from the person that ordered them, any more
than they could help striking, dropping, throwing, jumping, or
starting; all of these phenomena were indeed but parts of the general
condition known as jumping. It was not necessary that the sound should
come from a human being; any sudden or unexpected noise, as the
explosion of a gun or pistol, the falling of a window, or the slamming
of a door--provided it was unexpected and loud enough--would cause
these jumpers to exhibit some one or all of these phenomena. One of
these jumpers came very near cutting his throat, while shaving, on
hearing a door slam. They had been known to strike their fists against a
red-hot stove, to jump into the fire and into water. They could not
help striking their best friend if near them when ordered. The noise
of a steam whistle was especially obnoxious to them. One of these
jumpers, when taking some bromide of sodium in a tumbler, was told to
throw it, and he dashed the tumbler upon the floor. It was dangerous
to startle them in any way when they had an ax or an knife in their
hands. All of the jumpers agreed that it tired them to be jumped, and
they dreaded it, but they were constantly annoyed by their companions.
From this description it will at once, I think, be perceived that
there are striking analogies between "miryachit" and this disorder of
the "Jumping Frenchmen" of Maine. Indeed, it appears to me that, if
the two affections were carefully studied, it would be found that they
were identical, or that, at any rate, the phenomena of the one could
readily be developed into those of the others. It is not stated that
the subjects of miryachit do what they are told to do. They require an
example to reach their brains through the sense of sight or that of
hearing, whereas the "Jumpers" do not apparently perform an act which
is executed before them, but they require a command. It seems,
however, that a "Jumper" starts whenever any sudden noise reaches his
ears.
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