The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-10
CONCERNING PANICs.

CONCERNING PANfCS.
The recent horror in Chicago has caused
much speculation to how it might have
been prevented or the fatalities reduced to
minimum, but after all is said the fact re-
mains that the main factor was a panic.
If it were possible to conceive of audi
ence under such circumstances remaining
perfectly cool and filing out in an orderly
way the building could probably be emptied
without the loss Of single life. That has
sometimes been done IN schoolhouse fires,
where the children are drilled and made to
move by orders, when, If they had become
disorderly and rushed over one another there
would have been great loss Of life. Every
person knows the value OF orderliness in
moving a crowd and the danger Of panic.
What IS panic, anyhow? The word is
one Of frequent use. and almost every per-
son has seen an exhibition of il either among
animals or human beings, but 1t Is hard to
define and no definition is quite satisfactory
The dictionaries define ii as "a sudden, over
towering fright: especially a sudden and
groundless fright; terror inspired by a
@~~--
GER Another definition is, "A sudden and
exaggerated fright affecting a number Of
persons at once; terror inspired by trifiing
cause or by misapprehension Of danger" A
metaphysican trying to analyze the emotions
and will says: Panic is an outburst Of ter
ror affecting a multitude in common and
rendered more furious by sympathy and in
lection" OF these definitions the last is
perhaps the best because it embraces the
idea OF multitude and infection. 1t is not
quite accurate to speak of one person as
being panic stricken. One person may be
terribly frightened and may start a panic.
but it takes a crowd to complete it.
The word has curious origin. 1t is
anglicized from the Greek word panikos,
derived from Pan, the Greek NEUROLOGICAL
god of forests and fiocks. Old Pan stood for
pretty much everything in nature that the
ancients did not understand. He was sup
posed to be active at night, and sudden
terror caused by strange sounds in the
night was attributed to his influence. Dark
ness contributes TO fear, as it leaves one
to imagine terrible things which do not
exist and to magnify and multiply them
indefinitely. From a sudden and groundless
fear caused by strange sounds in the night,
supposed to be due to Pan. the word came
to mean any sudden overpowering fright.
Bacon says in his Fable of Pam" He
had also the power of striking terrors. espe-
cially such as were vain and superstitious.
whence they came to be called panic ter
rors." Thus the old Greek god has become
innocently responsible for a great many
disasters.
1t Is a curious illustration of Shakespeare s
preference for pure Anglo-Saxon words that
the word panic does not occur once in his
entire works. He had no use for words of
Greek or Latin origin if he could find an
Anglo-Saxon synonym. The words fear,
fright, terror appear in his works a great
many times. but panic never.
Perhaps some psychologist or biologist will
explain why 1t is that dumb brutes and
human beings are both alike. subject to the
craze that comes from unreasoning fear.
Everybody has read of the panics among
wild buffaloes under the influence Of which
they would run for miles and miles over
prairies. trampling the weaker ones to the
ground and crushing all opposition in their
mad flight A panic among the cattle oper-
ates much the same way. A panic among
soldiers is the most uncomfortable and un-
reasoning thing on earth. and a panic in a
large audience under an alarm of fire prob
ably affords more shocking exhibition of
human brutality than anything described
in fiction. Human beings never act so much
likes brutes as when they are under the
influence of panic. 1t is II human
thought were a compound of instinct and
intelligence. and when the latter is para
lyzed by fear instinct assumes control and
makes men brutes. 1t is a question for
casuists to answer whether men who, in
the midst of a panic, trample women and
children to death without conjunction or
remorse are not guilty of murder.