The Columbus journal., 1884-06-25
NeurophObis.


son avenue car going down town at the
corner of Fifty-fourth Street. One was
thin pallid, rather emaciated gentle
man, possibly forty years of age, with
peculiar transparency of the temples,
restless eyes and singular nervousness
Of manner; the other large, we'll
nourished, massive and rather corpu-
lent, with the placid, self-satished
countenance of the man who has suc-
ceeded in the world and feels On good
terms with it. The pair might readily
have been mistaken for madman and
his keeper, only the feebler of the two
was evidently not past the verge Of SAN
ity, while the placid companion was q
triHe less vigilant than the custodian Of
q maniac ought to be, and moreover
was recognized by at least one passen-
ger as famous physician.
The thin gentleman shifted his posi-
tion uneaslly, gazed out of the car win
dow q moment, then studied the faces
of his three or four fellow passengers
with the rapid intensity of . physiog-
nomist, and glanced furtively at the
open door, in which the figure of the
conductor was framed like full-length
photograph.
"Fares, gents" grumbled that
functionary, 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 pocket-book, and q shiver passed
over him. His portly companion turned
and spoke to him in a low tone. The
words were inaudible, and the intona-
.tions were soft, soothing and evidently
expostulatory. Suddenly the pale pas
'senger sprang to his feet, pulled the
bell violently and rushed out of the car.
which was now midway between Forty.
eighth aud Forty-ninth Streets. The
pOrtly physician rose from his seat in
leisureIy, 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 doc
tor and began to speak apolOgetically:
''NO use, you see. l can't stand 1t.
You really must excuse me, doctor.
''POoh! pooh" laughed the portly
physician, you'll conquer the thing
by and by. Try again, my dear boy"
'I'll step across and take the elevated
down town with your permission, Doc
tor" said the thin gentleman. making
no direct reply TO his friends eXhOrta-
tion. He lifted his neat Derby hat,
with hand that was almost pellucid
in its Gelicacy and whiteness, and was
gone.
THAT man." said the doctor, sis one
of hundred cases that have come
under my notice in the last few years
"a strange case of nervous impression.
He is not in the least timid; will ride
down town in Third avenue car. q
Broadway stage, or an elevated train,
with perfect cOmposure, but he has o
morbid, unconquerable nervous terror
of the Fourth avenue. and would suffer
any inconveniece or incur any expense
rather than ride in q Fourth avenue car.
l can't trace this impression to any
tangible cause. nor can he. lie 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 eccentricities
of opinion or manners. On the con-
trary, his name is familiar as that of q
shrewd banker. As to courage. he is
as brave Is q lion. as l have occasion
to know, and would fight odds of ten to
one, if his blood was up. Only, the
moment he finds himself on Fourth
avenue car he is seized with a paroxysm
of nervous terror which he cannot con-
troll; and that is tho end of it,
The doctor mused a moment. ''Walk
across with me to my Office" he said,
land 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 DIR. George M. Beard-as able
and acute as he was eccentric invented
the term neurophobia to describe the
condition existing in such cases, and
the singular thing about this neurOphO-
bia 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
patient, q man of tolerably robust and
we'll nourished physique. forty-six
years old. lawyer by profession-cannOt
bear to cross Broadway at the AstOr
House. He will walk down to Fulton
Street or up to Park place, but cross
under the shadow of the Astor House
never. There is no assignable cause for
the terror; it simply exists and that is
all. 1t came upon him suddenly ono
afternoon two years ago. after .
hard days work in court. He started
for the Astor House to get cup of
coffee and his regular half q dozen raw
oysters. To his wonder, as he was
about to step from the curbstone at the
corner of the postoffice he was seized
with fit of trembling and terror. and
since then he has never been able to
command himself to cross at that point,
though he has often tested his self
control by trying it.
Another patient had the same terror
of the Jersey City Ferry at the foot Of
Cortlandt Street. The Brooklyn ferries
have no terrors for him, the DesbrOsses
Street Ferry is not Objectionable, but
if his life depended upon crossing to
Jersey City at Cortlandt Street he could
not command his nerves to accomplish
it. As in the other two, there is no as
signable cause for the morbid impress
sion in this case. 1t came suddenly,
and has been in existence for four years.
"SOmetimes," continued the doctor,
''the victim has a terror of . certain
street, avenue, or public square; and
one man know cannot pass the statue
of Lincoln At Union Square without ex-
periencing nervous tremor. But, with
regard to some of our outdoor statuary,
nervous dread is natural enough"
Zone of my patients" he went on.
- literary man of some reputation. has
. nervous terror of words ending in or
containing the diphthons 'ch.' This
man will take any trouble to avoid the
relative pronoun which He has not
for years witten any one of the words
in tch-such as catch, fetch,
scratch, batch, latch or patch. For
match he always writes lucifer or We
suvian; for fetch, either bring or OBJ