The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-30
WHAT PEOPLE FEAR,
Thunder and Lightning Rank All
Other Causes of Alarm.
From the Philadelphia Times.


From the Philadelphia Times.
The hundreds of teachers who attended
the course of lectures on child psycholo-
gy by DR.. G. Stanley Hall, president of
Clark University at the normal school,
will be interested in hearing of the results
of the scientific study of fears conducted
under his direction and published by him
in the American Journal of Psychology.
DR.. Hall tabulated 6,456 fears described
by l,70 persons. 1t would appear that
thunderstorms are feared by most persons;
that reptiles follow, with strangers and
darkness as close seconds, while fire
death, domestic animals, disease, wild an
lmals, water, ghosts, insects, rats and
mice, robbers, high winds, dream fears
cats and dogs. cyclone, solitude drown
ing, birds, represent decreasing degrees of
fearfulness.
Altogether a list Of 29S classes of objects
feared was made up. The order quoted is
not quite the. same in different localities
In Cambridge alone the fear of thunder
and lightning does not lead. In st. Paul
slXty-seven fear cyclones, and only eight
the end Of the world, which has sixty
two victims in Trenton, where also forty
six fear being buried alive
The st. Paul returns show an average
OF 4S8 fears for each person, those from
Trenton 1866, whileathe Cambridge. Mass.
boys report 2.2S each. DR.. Hail takes this
to indicate more interest in the work In
St Paul than In Cambridge. The St. Paul
fears lead all others in intensity and OBJ
Jective realism; their quality is more prim-
tive and they have less variety. Here.
however, we meet with fears Of train rob-
bers, having to sleep on the porch and
starvation.
So far as DR.. Halls Investigations go. it
q al L.
great many less fears than girls. PERHAPS
this is result of masculine boastfulness
Forty-four girls fear the sight of blood
as against fourteen boys Two hundred
and thirty boys fear thunder and light
ming as against 125 girls. In regard to wa
ter night and shyness, boys are the more
fearful.
The following classes of fears show de-
cline with advancing years: Meteors.
clouds blood end of the world. being
kidnapped, fairies, loss of orientaton. shv-
ness OF strangers; while the following seem
TO increase: Thunder and lightning. rep.
tiles, robbers, self-consciousness machin-
cry.
The number of persons who felt an i'm
pulse to throw themselves from high
places was astonishing. Here is an exam
pie: Girl, aged 49, at the top of a high
building. was irresistibly impelled to
squeeze between the bars of the railing to
SSS IL Ohe could ran TO the pavement: Is
sure she would have landed there IL she
had not been held, and describes IL as
an outside power forcing her against her
VIII, as very terrible and conquering her
control" boy, aged 16, says: '@The hor-
ror OF hell is you are always falling"
Or. Hail suggests that the sensation of
lowering so often felt In dreams is a relic
OF a time when man swan and fioated and
had no legs. There are traces of gill Sits
under our necks.
large class Of people are haunted. both
awake and asleep, by fears of losing them
selves. For instance, a girl aged saws
she often woke up in terror and cried
loudly because she could not think where
she was. even whether she was in bed or
not" Another. aged 10. sweats, feels faint
and nauseated If she cannot instantly To-
cate every door and window on waking
nights. This fear Is very common In both
sexes and in childhood and maturity.
Dread OF getting lost Is often abnormallv
strong. This may be a relic Of primitive
life. when to wander far away from the
tribe meant 10 lose It forever. on the
other hand, many children show a pro-
pensity TO run away, suggesting a sur
vival OF instinct inherited from nomadic
race.