The St. Mary banner., 1907-08-24


curious and somewhat anomalous
states OF mind, in which an aversion
known and admitted by the subjects
OF 1t to be irrational and absurd,
nevertheless dominates conduct,
prompts the execution of irrational
acts and renders certain rational and
desirable acts impossible.
If | had to speculate on the origin
OF these curious and spurious instincts,
for such they may be termed. | should
assign them to the revival OF in
stincts which existed in full force
and had great biological value in our
remote ancestry, but which in most
OF us have long been obsolete. When
our ancestors We're arDOreal Ill haDlt,
this habit was their salvation from
extinction. Feeble in body, destitute
of weapons and of defensive armor,
devoid CT means of concealment, their
safety from carnivOrOuS foes lay In
the agility with which they could
climb out of reach, and in the accu-
racy with which they could leap from
bough to bough and from tree to tree.
Whenever they descended to the
ground they were in danger. 1t is On
the ground that the greater carnivora
pursue their prey, and adapted as our
ancestors We're to arbCreal life, their
progress on open ground was TN
doubtedly less rapid than among the
tree tops, and most probably less
rapid than that Of their principal
foes. Among the tree tops they
were secure. There no enemy could
vie with them in activity or hope to
overtake them: but On the ground
they were at a disa dyantage. On the
fiat they had no chance against the
spring of the panther or the speed and
wind of the wolf; bat once let them
attain the security of the forest and
they could grin at their enemies be-
low. The further they yentured
from their secure retreat the greater
the peril they were in; the nearer
their refuge, the more complete their
sense OF security. Since instincts,
using the term in the sense Of men
of life. which in turn they dictate,
We may be sure that in the arboreal
stage of their existence aversion eX"
listed to any extended excursion from
their places of security and refuge.
Near to trees, they were in safety:
far from trees they We're in continual
danger, and therefore in continual un-
easiness. In such situation they
had an abiding and we'll founded
dread and sense OF impending danger.
This is the state of mind which, as
1t seems to me, is reproduced in sim
flar circumstances in agoraphobia.
The craving of the subject of this
malady is to be near, not trees, nee
essarily, it is true, but near to some
tall, vertical structure. Away from
such a structure, he has just the feel
ing of dread, of impending danger. of
imminent disaster, of something
dreadful about to happen that man
would have who was walking through
jungle infested by tigers, or that
child has when alone in the dark.
And this is just such their natural
habitat. l have seen a woman af
fected with agoraphobia get from
one side of a court to the other by
not only going around by the wall,
and touching it all the way, but
squeezing herself up against it, and
clutching at the bare surface. Suffer
ers from this malady cannot cross
an open space They cannot venture
more than step or two from some
vertical surface They feel no un-
easiness in colonnade. open all
around them though it be. Their
reason tells them that their dread is
groundless, but reason is poweriess
against instinct, and an imperious
instinct shouts danger" in their
ears.
The opposite malady, Catastrophe
bia, seems to me to reproduce a state
of affairs of much later occurrence in
our racial history When arboreal
habits at length began to be aban-
doned, and our anthropoid ancestors
began to shelter themselves in hol-
low trees, in caves and holes in the
ground. there must often have been
a conflict between the immeasurably
old, primitive habit Of roosting under
the open sky and the modern inno-
walton of taking shelter from the
weather. The sense of confinement
must have been very irksome We
NAV be sure that there was no sur
den revolution in the mode of life
The new habit was adopted very
gradually. Only in some very vio-
lent storm would the first indwellers
creep into hole for shelter, and
they would soon find their circum-
scribed quarters intolerable, and brave