The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-10
TWO QUEER DREoDs.

How Modern Science Explains Them. Agroraphobia qtor fear of open sraces) is not nearly as common a
 malady as Its antithesis claustrophiba Gear of shut-in places.) Both are curious and somewhat anomalous states of mind, in which an aversion, known ard admitted by the subjects of 1t to be irrational and absurd, Aavar
 theless dominates conduct, prompts
 the execution of irrational acts, and renders certain rational and desirable
 acts impossible
 If l had to supeculate on the origin of these curious and spurious instincts, for such than they may be termed, I should assign them to the revival of instincts which exists in full force and 1 had great biological value in our re- mote ancestry, but which in most of | us have long been obsolete. When our ancestors were arboreal in habit, this habit was their salvation from extinc
 ton. Feeble In body, destitue of weapons and oflefenslve armor devoid of Means lf concealment their safety
 from carnlvorous foes lay in the l agility with which they could climb out of reach, and in the accuracy with which they could leap from hough to bnugh and from tree to tree. When
 ever they descended to the ground
 they were in danger. It Is on the | ground that the greater carnivora pur- sue their prey; and adapted as 1ur an
 cestors were to arboreal life, their pro
 gress on open ground was undoubtedly
 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 evertake men: but ln the | ground they were at a disadvantage.
 On the flat they had no chance against the spring of the panther or the speed
 and wind af the wolf but once let them attain the security of the forest,
 and they could grin enemies below The farther they ventured from their secure retract the greater the peril
 they were in; the nearer their refuge, |
 curitv. Since instincts, using the
 term In the sense of mental cravings,
 become adapted to modes of life,
 which in turn they dictate, we may be
 sure that in the aboreal stage of their
 existence aversion to any extended ex-
 cursf3n from their places of security
 and refuge Near to trees, they were in safety: far from trees, they were in
 continual anger, and therefore in continual uneasiness. In such a stua-
 ton they had an abiding and wei founded dread and sense of impending
 danger.
 This is the sate of mind which as il , seems to me. is reproduced in similar circumstances in agJrraphobia. Int craving of the subject of this malads
 is to be near, not trees, necessarily, i Is true, but near to some taoil, vertica structure. Away from such a struc !, ture. he has just the feeling of dread
 of impending danger, of imminen
 disaster, of something dreadful abou to happen that a man would have wh,
 was walking through jungle infested | by tigers, or that a child has whel alone In the dark. And this . is jus t such natural habitat. have seen woman affected with agorraphoba ge ' from one side of a court to the othe by not only going around by the wal 9 and touching it all the way, bu 3 squeezing herself up against it, an, l. clutching at the bare surface. Suffer 9 CTS from this malady cannot cross al S open space. They cannot ventur . more than step or two from som l lvertical surface They feel no uneasi . ness in @ colonnade, open all arount : them though it be. Their reason tell