The San Francisco call., 1908-11-22
own pet aversion and the pain it gives

own pet aversion and the pain it gives
you.
Many investigators-pa particularly in
France-have devoted a great deal of
time to the study of these queer aver
sions. They are called by the French
speurs malades" Gear maladies), and
by the Germans swangsvorstellunge
(constraint idiosyncrasies) Some Of
thenl-such as hematophobia the fear
of blood, and necrophobia. the fear
of dead bodies-are common to the
great majority of human beings.
Others-such as agoraphobia, the fear
of open spaces, and folie de doute, the
fear OF making mistakes-are happily
very rare. But all of them, the less
and the greater, present features of
strong interest.
Agoraphobia-the fear of open spaces
takes a number of forms and has had
not a few distinguished victims One
of these was the celebrated Emperor
Heraclius, who conquered CONSTANT
nople and reigned in ByZantium during
the sixth century. An open plain made
Heraclius shiver with terror. and he
could not bear the sight of the sea.
In his palace he inhabited small, low
ceilinged rooms, with heavy hangings
When he went abroad he travelled in
closed conveyances. Once, when it was
necessary for him to cross the Bos-
phorus. he had his engineers build a
bridge of boats bordered on both sides
by walls made of curtains and branches
of trees. Only thus could he bring him
self to venture over the strait
AGoRAPHOBIA
An ingenious English Investigation
is of the opinion that agoraphobia is
dread not so much of open spaces
as of the surface of the earth He says
that it is a legacy from our s1mian
ancestors. who sought safety from their
foes in the dense tops OF trees. Ihese
primeval anthropoid apes were at a dls-
advantage on the ground, ana tney knew
it. They associated the idea or the
earth's surface With ideas of sudden
assaults by leopards and lions. This
ancient race Impression has come down
TO us. In the great majority of human
beings later Impressions have wiped 1t
out When, by atavism, It reappears,
we call it sagoraphobia.
The converse of agoraphobia IS
claustrophobia, the fear of closed
places 1t is comparatively common, and
is usually revealed as dread of enter
ing crowded streetcars or of passing
through narrow passages. The man
who feels i'll at ease indoors-who likes
to go rowing across open fields and to
sleep under the blue vault of heaven
is a claustrophobe.
According to the English scientist
before mentioned, claustrophobia dates
from the early days of the human race.
At that time man was ceasing TO live
in the trees and learning to live on
the ground He felt the need OF shelter
and so sought 1t I'm caves and in hollow
tree trunks; but experience soon
n i'm, Rot
often harbors for snakes, wild beasts
and other fearsome enemies. There
fore he began@to associate small, con-
fined shelters with ideas of fear, and it
took him a long while to drive this
fear out of his mind. Even today saw
ages, children and the ignorant are
afraid of caves and dark rooms.
The fear of darkness itself which IS
common in nine tenths of the human
race, probably had it's rise in the same
manner, though now and then it is
justified by some small or great risk
of actual injury. A great many intel
ligent and educated persons are utterly
unable to rid themselves of this fear.
They know the absurdity Of 1t and
they battle against 1t, but in vain. 1t
is, in fact, pathological, and frequently
it is accompanied by other and better
marked symptoms of neurasthenia or
nSSlcElds OuI lllS Is ny IlO lilCduS
invariably. On the contrary, many
persons in whom it is strong are con-
spicuously sound in mind and other
wise.
Hematophobia, the dread of blood
and necrophobia, the fear of dead
bodies, are common. The former is es-
sentially a malady of civilization. Saw
ages seldom exhibit It. even slightly,
and they are never moved to nausea by
the sight of blood. In some civilized
persons it is SO strong that the sight of
a bleeding wound causes violent sick
ness and Inconsistencies, followed by
dangerous exhaustion and even by COL
lapse. Every medical school has rec
ords of students who had to abandon
their studies because they could not
overcome their hematophobia. AS a
rule, however, the weakness soon yields
to familiarity. The medical student
who grows sick at first operation later
may become the veteran surgeon to
whom blood seems no more horrible
than so much water.
Neerophobia is widespread among all
human beings; but very naturally it
reaches its most violent and remarkable
forms among savages. There are tribes
in Africa whose members flee from the
dead as from pestilence. They put
the care and burial of corpses into the
hands of slaves and distant tribes No