The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-05-09
A REMARKABLE AFFECTION
TIE STRANGE FANcIEs THAT DIS
TINauIsH NEuRoPHoBTA.
Persons with n Dislike for Certain
Streets. places or Objects --Others
who Eread Letters or COlOrs.


days last week two men got On a Madi-
son avenue car going down town at the
corner of Fifty fourth street One was a
thin, pallid, rather emaciated gentleman,
possibly forty years of age, with rather a
peculiar transparency of the temples,
restless eyes, and singular nervousness
of manner; the other large, well nour-
ished, massive and rather corpulent, with
the placid self satisfied countenance of
the man who has succeeded in the world,
and feels on good terms with it. The
pair might readily have been mistaken
for a mailman and his keeper, only the
feebler of the two was evidently not past
the verge of sanity, while the placid com
panion was a trille less vigilant than the
custodian of maniac ought to be, and
moreover was recognized by at least one
passenger as a famous physician.
The thin gentleman shifted his posi-
ton uneasily, gazed out of the Car win
dow a moment, then studied the faces of
his three or four fellow passengers with
the rapid intensity of a physiognomist,
and glanced furtively at the open door,
in which the figure of the conductor was
framed like full-length photograph.
"Farcs gents" grumblcd that func
tionary stalking into the ear. The thin
gentleman paid for two, and again
glanced in the direction of the open
door. His hand shook as he replaced his
pocketbook, and shiver passed over
him. His portly companion turned and
spoke to him in low tone. The words
were inaudible, and the intonations were
soft, soothing, and evidently expostula-
10
to his feet, pulled the bell violently, and
rushed out of the car, which was now
midway between Forty eighth and Forty
ninth streets. The portly physician rose
from his seat in a leisurely, comfortable
sort of way. and alighted at the corner
of Forty eighth street, where the car
came to a full stop. The thin gentleman,
excited, nervous, out of breath, and
trembling all over like leaf in the wind,
Joined the doctor and began to speak
apologctically: mo use, you see. l
can't stand it. You really must excuse
me, DOCTOR"
"Pooh! pooh" laughed the portly
physician. "You'll conquer the thing
by and bye. Try again, my dear boy.'
'Ill step across and take the elevated
downtown, with your permission, doc
tor" said the thin gentleman, making no
direct reply to his friends eXhortation.
He lifted his neat Derby hat, with hand
that was almost pellucid in its dclicacy
and whiteness, and was gone.
"That man. said the DOCTOR "is one
of a hundred cases that have come under
my notice in the last few years-a strange
case Of nervous impression. lie is not in
II l., 4
Third avenue car, Broadway stage, or
an elevated train, with perfect compo,ure,
but he has a morbid, unconguerabe ner-
vous terror of the Fourth avenue, and
would suffer any Inconvenience or incur
any expense rather than ride in Fourth
avenue car. / can't trace this impression
to any tangible cause, nor can he. He
has never met with an accident on the
Fourth avenue, so far as he remembers.
1t is simply one of those inexplicable,
unreasoning, spontaneous impressions of
the nervous system that no science can
explain. The man is not a crank, nor in
the least given to ecCentlicities of opinion
or manners. On the contrary, his name
is familiar as that of a shrewd banker
AS to courage, he is as brave as a lion, as
have occasion to know, and would fight
odds Of ten to one, if his blood was up.
Only, the moment he finds himself on a
Fourth avenue car he is seized with a
parOxysm Of nervous terror which he can
not control; and that is the end of it."
The doctor unused moment. "Walk
across with me to my Office" he said,
""and I'll talk with you by the way
Such cases are by no means uncommon,
though no paper has ever been written
on the subject and there is no name for
the malady in the medical books. The
late DR.. George NJ Beard-as able and
acute as he was eccentric-invented the
term neurophobia to describe the condi-
ton existing in such cases, and the
singular thing about this ueurophobia is
that it seldom occurs with women, given
as they are supposed to be, to nervous
impressions and hysterical fancies."
In one of the doctors Office journals
there were notes of this case: A raticnt,
a man of tolcrably robust and we'll
nourished physique, fortysix years old,
lawyer by profession-cannot bear to
cross Broadway at the Aston house. lie
will walk down to Fulton street or up to
Park place, but cross under the shadow
of the AstOr house never There is nc
assignablc cause for the terror; it simply
exists and that is all. 1t came upon him
suddenly one afternoon two years ago,
after hard days work in court lie
started for the Astor house to get a CUP
of coffee and his regular half dozen raw
oysters. To his wonder, as he was about
to step from the curbstone at the corner
of the postoflicc he was seized with {
fit of trembling and terror, and since
then he has ncvc. been able to command
himself to cross at that point, though he
has often tested his selfcontrol by try,
ing it.
Another patient had the same terror o
the Jersey City ferry at the foot of Cort
landt street. The Brooklyn ferries hav'
no terrors for him, the Desbrosses stree
ferry is not Objectionable but if his lif,
depended upon crossing to Jersey Cit,
at Cortlandt street he could not com
mand his nerves to accomplish it. AS il
the other two, there is no assignabl
cause for the morbid impression in thi