the steward, the latter instantly gave it a similar thump; or, if any noise were made suddenly, he seemed compelled against his will to imitate it instantly, and with remarkable accuracy.  To annoy him, some of the passengers imitated pigs grunting, or called out absurd names; others clapped their hands and shouted, jumped, or threw their hats on the deck suddenly, and the poor steward, suddenly startled, would echo them all precisely, and sometimes several consecutively.  Frequently he would expostulate, begging people not to startle him, and again would grow furiously angry, but even in the midst of his passion he would helplessly imitate some ridiculous shout or motion directed at him by his pitiless tormenters.  Frequently he shut himself up in his pantry, which was without windows, and locked the door, but even there he could be heard answering the grunts, shouts, or pounds on the bulkhead outside.  He was a man of middle age, fair physique, rather intelligent in facial expression, and without the slightest indication in appearance of his disability.  As we descended the bank to go on board the steamer, some one gave a loud shout and threw his cap on the ground; looking about for the steward, for the shout was evidently made for his benefit, we saw him violently throw his cap, with a shout, into a chicken-coop, into which he was about to put the result of his foraging expedition among the houses of the stanitza.

[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]