[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.
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