Jumping Frenchmen of Maine

Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is a rare psychological or, possibly, a neurological disorder first observed by George Miller Beard in 1878. It entails an exaggerated "startle" reflex which may be described as an uncontrollable "jump" but can also exhibit sudden movements in all parts of the body. Though distinct and unique, this condition also shares similar symptoms with numerous disorders pertaining to startle. Patients with this disorder were first found in the northern regions of Maine; hence, the unusual name for this medical condition.

Read more about Jumping Frenchmen Of Maine:  History, Similar Disorders, Historical Significance

Famous quotes containing the words jumping, frenchmen and/or maine:

    Everything seems beautiful because you don’t understand. Those flying fish, they’re not leaping for joy, they’re jumping in terror. Bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water, it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies, the glitter of putrescence. There’s no beauty here, only death and decay.
    Curtis Siodmak (1902–1988)

    ... exchanging platitudes, as Frenchmen do, for the pleasure of feeling their mouths full of the good meat of common sense.
    Rebecca West (1892–1983)

    We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave, devout man spend the year in the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew Scriptures speak adequately to his condition and experience.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)