Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-10
IRON Hammond Indiana, comes the news that
perfectly healthy wo-year-old child

IRON Hammond, Indiana, comes the news that
perfectly healthy two year old child was
awakened by a shrl long drawn out engine
whistle and frightened into spasms, which resulted
in death. We frequently read in the daily papers
of children being frightened out of their wits, and
into commissions by cat or dog and sometimes
of their being struck dumb by some terrifying OBJ
ject event. little girl night frightened
by her cousin, who jumped out at her in a sheet:
she fell down stairs, into COMMISSIONS and ever
since has horrors of everything white in dark places
little boy was once in cyclone, when his mother
gathered her children round her and said they
would all die together. He was frightened into
St Vituss dance, and made weak minded.
These facts are part of that general knowledge
which the newspapers so industrousy spreading
abroad. But your family physician will tell you
that many of the nervous diseases of children, which
the most difficult to control and cure, can be
traced to instance of fright of which parents
never knew, or have perhaps forgotten; and the
specialists OF nervous diseases know that the nett
rasthenic condition. to which these diseases are
usually referred, has in many cases been brought
about by the shock of some sudden terror or by
the haunting specter of some habtual childish fear
The fact is that the innocent little child seems
often to be born to fear; it comes into the world
with cry, and for many years continues to suffer
vigorously for the painful experiences of its fore
bears. The fears of children are, matter of
course, more instructive and less rational than
those of older people, and each of them is a
chapter in the long and terrible struggle of the
toward perfection. Some of them date back
to period before man, and are the vestiges of the
animal experiences reflected in the human
sciouSnesS.
The facts suggest the immense Importance of
understanding how general and how real are the
fears that children suffer, and how important it is
that parents and teachers should know and take
account of them.
The first scientist to make a systematic study of
fears for definite pedagogical purpose Pres-
dent G. Stanley Hall of Clark University For the
purpose of his study he made of what scientists
know QUESTIONABLE. Parents, teachers. and
children were requested to name and describe all
the fears they themselves had. and those they OBJ
served in others.
From the than seventeen hundred replies
that he received. President Hall found that children
fear thunder and lightning than anything else:
next come reptiles, with strangers and darkness
as close seconds; while fire. DEATH domestic animals
disease. wild animals, water, ghosts, insects. rats
and mice, robbers, high winds, dream fears. cats
and dogs, cyclones, solitude, drowning. birds, etc.
represent decreasing degrees of fearfulness. Alto
gether there were two hundred and nnety-eight
Directs that children reported to be afraid Of
Girls fear everything than boys. with the ex-
eeptlon OF water, height and appearing shy bash
full. To be accurate. each girl had on an average
SAT fears. while each boy had only 2.sS fears
Again the fears of boys decrease after the fifteenth