A Mortal Antipathy

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809 -1894) was an American physician, professor, lecturer and author. Holmes wrote his first book of essays entitled "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table in 1831. Holmes used the true story of a middle-aged man, who assured him that he could never pass by a tall hall clock without an indefinable terror. While an infant in his mother's arms the heavy weight of one of these tall clocks had fallen with aloud crash and produced an impression on his nervous system which he had never got over. Each person has an atmosphere about him. A dog for example can sense this atmosphere while a human is not sensitive enough to do this. It was this atmospheric impression, which had associated itself with the shock experienced by the infant which Homes used as the plot of his story.