ANTIPATHY, in Physiology, is formed from the
two Greek words, avri contrary, and pathos passion. Li-
terally taken, the word signifies incompatibility: but for
the most part the term antipathy is not used to signify
such incompatibilities as are merely physical; it is re-
served to express the aversion which an animated or
sensitive being feels at the real or ideal presence of par-
ticular objects. In this point of view, which is the
light in which we at present consider the term, antipa-
thy, in common language, signifies "a natural hor-
ror and detestation, an insuperable hatred, an in-
voluntary aversion, which a sensitive being feels for some
other object, whatever it is, though the person who
feels this abhorrence is entirely ignorant of its cause,
and can by no means account for it. Such is, they
say, the natural and reciprocal hostility between the sa-
lamander and the tortoise; between the toad and the
weasel; or between sheep and wolves. Such is, the in-
vincible aversion of particular persons against cats,
mice, spiders, &c.: a prepossession which is sometimes
so violent, as to make them faint at the sight of these
animals. Of these and a thousand other antipathies,
the ancient naturalists, the schoolmen, and the vul-
gar, form so many legends; and relate them as cer-
tain facts, that they may demand an explication of
them from the philosophers. But these fables begin
with investigating whether such antipathies actually
exist or not.
To explore the matter without prejudice, we shall
find it necessary to abstract from the subjects of this
disquisition, 1. All such antipathies as are not ascer-
tained; as that which is supposed to be felt by hens
at the sound of a harp whose strings are made of a
fox's bowels, between the salamander and tortoise, and Antipathy.
between the weasel and the toad. Nothing is less con-
firmed, or rather nothing is more false, than these
facts, with which vulgar credulity and astonishment
are amused and actuated: and though some of these
antipathies should be ascertained, this would be no
proof that the animals which feel them are not ac-
quainted with their causes, according to their mode and
proportion of knowledge; in which case it will be no
longer the antipathy which we have defined.
2. We must abstract those antipathies which can be
extinguished or resumed at pleasure; those filitious
aversions, which certain persons feel, or pretend to feel,
with affected airs, that they may appear more precise
and finical, or singularly and prodigiously elegant;
that they may seem to have qualities so exquisitely fine,
as require to be treated with peculiar delicacy. One
who bestows any attention on the subject, would be
astonished to find how many of these chimerical aver-
sions there are, which are pretended, and passed upon
the world by those who affect them as natural and un-
conquerable.
3. When we abstract those aversions the causes of
which are known and evident; we shall be surprised
after our deduction of those pretended antipathies from
the general sum, how small, how inconsiderable, is the
quantity of those which are conformable to our defini-
tion. Will any one pretend to call by the name of an-
tipathy, those real, innate, and incontestable aversions
which prevail between sheep and wolves? Their cause
is obvious; the wolf devours the sheep, and subsists up-
on his victims; and every animal naturally flies with
terror from pain or destruction; sheep ought therefore
to regard wolves with horror, which for their nutrition
tear and mangle the unresisting prey. From principles
similar to this, arises that aversion which numbers of
people feel against serpents; against small animals, such
as reptiles in general, and the greatest number of in-
sects. During the credulous and susceptible period of
infancy, pains have been taken to impress our minds
the frightful idea that they are venomous; that their
bite is mortal; that their sting is dangerous, produc-
tive of tormenting inflammations or tumours, and
sometimes fatal: they have been represented to us as
ugly and sordid; as being, for that reason, pernicious
to those who touch them; as poisoning those who
have the misfortune to swallow them. These horrible
prepossessions are industriously inculcated from our in-
fancy; they are sometimes attended and supported by
dismal tales, which are greedily imbibed, and indelibly
engraved on our memories. It has been taught us
both by precept and example, when others at their
approach have assumed in our view the appearance of
detestation and even of terror, that we should fly from
them, that we should not touch them. Is it then won-
derful (if our false impressions as to this subject have
been corrected neither by future reflections nor experi-
ments) that we should entertain, during our whole
lives, an aversion for these objects, even when we
have forgot the admonitions, the conversations, and
examples, which have taught us to believe and appre-
hend them as noxious beings? and in proportion to the
sensibility of our frame, in proportion as our nerves
are irritable, our emotions at the sight of what we
fear will be more violent, especially if they anticipate
our
Antipathy, our expectation, and seize us unprepared, though our ideas of what we have to fear from them are the most confused and indistinct imaginable. To explain these facts, it is necessary to fly to the exploded subterfuge of occult qualities inherent in bodies, to latent relations productive of antipathies, of which no person could ever form an idea?
It is often sufficient to influence a person who had formerly no aversion for an object, if he lives with some other associate who gives himself up to such capricious panics; the habit is insensibly contracted to be agitated with disagreeable emotions at the presence of an object which had been formerly beheld with indifference and cold blood. I was acquainted (says the author of the article Antipathy in the French Encyclopédie) with a person of a very sound understanding, whom thunder and lightning by no means terrified; nay, to whom the spectacle appeared magnificent and the sound majestic: yet to a mind thus seemingly fortified against the infectious terror, no more was necessary than spending the summer with a friend in whom the appearance of lightning excited the strongest emotions, and whom the remotest clap of thunder affected with extravagant paroxysms, to become timid in excess at the approach of thunder; nor could he ever afterwards surmount the fear which it inspired. The frightful stories of dogs and cats, which have killed their masters, or which have given them mortal wounds, are more than sufficient to inspire a timorous person with aversion against these animals; and if the olfactory nerves of such a person be delicate, he will immediately discover the smell of them in a chamber: disturbed by the apprehension which these effluvia excite in his mind, he gives himself up to the most violent uneasiness, which is tranquillized when he is assured that the animal is no longer in the room. If by chance, in the search which is made to calm the uneasiness of this timorous person, one of these creatures should at last be discovered, every one presently exclaims, A miracle; and admits the reality of antipathies into his creed; whilst all this is nothing but the effect of a childish fear, founded on certain confused and exaggerated ideas of the hazard which one may run with these animals. The antipathy which some people entertain against eels, though they are eaten by others with pleasure, arises from nothing but the fear of serpents, to which these fishes are in some degree similar. There are likewise other antipathies which do not originate in the imagination, but arise from some natural incongruity; such as we often remark in children, for particular kinds of victuals, with which their taste is not offended, but which their stomachs cannot digest, and which are therefore digested as soon as swallowed.
To what then are those antipathies of which we have heard so much, reducible! Either to legendary tales; or to aversions against objects which we believe dangerous; or to a childish terror of imaginary perils; or to a disrelish, of which the cause is disguised; or to a ridiculous affection of delicacy; or to an infirmity of the stomach; in a word, to a real or pretended reluctance for things which are either invested, or supposed to be invested, with qualities hurtful to us. Too much care cannot be taken in preventing, or regulating, the antipathies of children; in familiarizing them with objects of every kind; in discovering to them, without
emotions, such as are dangerous; in teaching them the Antipathy means of defence and security, or the methods of escaping their noxious influence; and, when the rational Antipathy, powers are matured by age, in reflecting on the nature of those objects which we fear, in ascertaining what has been told concerning their qualities, or in vigorously operating upon our own dispositions to overcome those vain repugnancies which we may feel. See SYMPATHY, which is the opposite of Antipathy.