| Show What Medicine Knows Tod Today y QUEER FEAR FEA MALADIES u This and other articles to appear in inthis Inthis inu u this series aeries have been prepared by specialists specialists II and medical men of wide reputation reputation tation Each contributor stands high In Jn his field Professional ethics prohibit them from rom attaching their names but every statement ts is made with the high highest highest highest est authority One o of the things that modern medi medicine medicine cine has yet ret to do is to mark out ex exactly exactly adl the tho dividing line lIno between sickness and health At present the whole mat matter matter matter ter Is vague ague and obscure obscuro and all sorts of controversies are raging To the layman laman the problem is sometimes pre presented presented presented in its simplest form torm The hands of a day laborer for Instance become covered with a hard horny substance He regards ft tt as a natural normal and necessary thing But when the same substance appears on his feet teet he calls the nodules bunions and looks upon them as pernicious Here we have the same phenomenon viewed from diametrically diametrically different aspects Once it is normal nor normal normal mal and the next time it is abnormal i once it is an evidence of ot health and the th next time of ot disease Similar problems engage the pathologist pathologist gist constantly For instance he is puzzled puzzled puzzled often otten to point out an essential difference between fatigue and illness Ordinary fatigue as everyone knows is compatible with perfect health Yet Tet fatigue sometimes becomes Indistinguishable Indistinguishable from pathological exhaustion Again consider the pain which accompanies accompanies the cutting of ot teeth Is It to tobe tobe tobe be token taken as a proof of Illness or as a manifestation of ot good health Yet agate consider the matter of ot hunger When does it cease to be normal and 1 become unnatural unhealthful and diseased In no department of ot pathology is there more furious debate deb te regarding this dividing line between health and Illness than In the department which deals with the mind Evidence of ot this Is furnished almost daily dally by proceed proceedings proceedIngs ings lags in the law courts One alienist testifies that a murderer Is II perfectly sane ane and normal and that he is en entirely entirely conscious of ot the nature of ot his hf crime alma Another swears that he Is ab absolutely absolutely Irresponsible As a matter of fact the boundary between sanity and insanity Is a fence whose bars are down The Th most Intelligent man in tho world is deficient mentally in some re respect respect or other and the worst lunatic is 1 in some way or at some coma time per perfectly perfectly perfectly normal Ordinarily pathologists distinguish two and distinct mental states Elates between undoubted sanity and undoubted lunacy One OM is 18 called neu neurasthenia and the other hysteria Neu Neurasthenia Neurasthenia Neurasthenia is a condition marked by bv ex excessive excessive sensitiveness to ordinary stimuli sUm stimuli uli That is lato to say the neurasthenic is profoundly and unpleasantly affected by things or events which bother the tha normal man little or not at all In hysteria this weakness Is more marked The hysteric Is another step forward on the road to insanity He suffers from delusions and In Inmany Inmany Inmany many respects has lost entirely his power of ot ratiocination Another step and he is obviously crazy Neurasthenia is called caned the national malady of ot the United States al lot lof us It is said are more or less its victims One man has a case of ot nerves and a aloud aloud aloud loud noise makes him jump from his chair another man is abnormally ex excitable excitable excitable and quarrels on the slightest provocation another is gloomy and downcast no matter what the temptation temptation temptation tion to be gay another hates chil children children children dren another is nervous and nd cannot sit still for two minutes at a time another has a senseless fear tear of the water All of ot these men at bottom are neurasthenics They are out cf ct tune with the rest of the world The I ordinary phenomena and experiences of ot I life Ufe pain them I Every man fancies that he personally i is absolutely free of ot such abnormalities and delusions but as a matter of fact i it is extremely rare to encounter a n hu human human human man being of ot whom this claim may be made truthfully Every man says the he German rov Iro erb has his tubercle We Wo may para pant phase that into Every man has his delusion delm fon One Is afraid of ot the water and another of ot the dark one fears tears firearms fire firearms firearms arms and another sharp instruments one hates a crowd and another bates hates loneliness one turns sick at the sight of ot blood and his wife faints if a mouse crosses the room These people do not make believe they really suffer suf suffer fer ter If It you rou do not believe it consider your own pet aversion and the pain it gives you Many Investigators particularly In Prance have devoted a great deal of ot time to the study of ot these thee queer aver aversions aVersions lions They are called by the French brench malades fear tear maladies and by the Germans HwaI ga constraint Some of ot them such as the fear of or blood and the fear of dead bodies are common to the great majority of ot human beings Others such as agoraphobia the fear tear of open spaces and folie folle de doute the fear te r of making mistakes are happily very yeI rare But all of ot them the less and tho the greater present features of strong in interest Interest interest terest Agoraphobia the fear of ot open spaces takes a number of forms and has had hadnot hadnot hadnot not a few distinguished victims One of these was the celebrated Emperor who conquered Constanti Constantinople Constantinople nople and reigned in Byzantium during the sixth century An open plain made shiver with terror and he could not bear the sight of ot the sea In his palace he inhabited small low rooms with heavy hangings When he went abroad he traveled in closed conveyances Once when it was necessary for him to cross the rus he had his engineers build a bridge of boats bordered on both sides by walls made of ot curtains and branches of ot trees Only thus could be bring him himself himself himself self to venture over the strait An Ingenious English investigator is 15 of ot the opinion that agoraphobia is a dread not so much of open spaces as of ot the surface of ot the earth He says that Itis a legacy legac from our simian an ancestors ancestors ancestors who sought fought safety safet from their foes toes In the dense tops of trees These primeval anthropoid apes were at a dis disadvantage disadvantage advantage on the ground and they knew it It They The associated the idea of the earths surface with ideas of sud sudden sudden sudden den assaults by b leopards and lions This ancient race impression has come comedown comedown comedown down to us In the great majority of human beings later impressions have hae wiped it out When by atavism It re reappears reappears reappears appears we call it agoraphobia The converse of ot agoraphobia is claustrophobia the fear tear of closed places It is comparatively common and is usually revealed as a dread of ot entering ent ring crowded street str et cars can or of pass passIng passInS passing Ing InS through narroW narro passages The Theman Theman Theman man who feels ill at east indoors who likes to go roving across across the open fields and to sleep under the blue vault of ot heaven is a 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 hive in the trees and learning to live on the ground He felt the need of ot shelter and so sought it in caves and andin andIn andin in hollow but experience soon Boon taught him that these places laces were often otten harbors for snakes w wild lid beasts and other fearsome enemies Therefore he began to associate small confined shelters with ideas of f fear far farand ar arand and it took him a long while to drive this fear tear out of ot his mind Even l today savages children and the ignorant are arc afraid of caves caes and dark rooms The fear tear of darkness itself which Is c to of ot the hu human human human man race probably had its rise In the same manner though now no and then it itis ItIs itis is justified by some small or r great risk of actual injury A great many intel intelligent Intelligent Intelligent an persons are arc utter utterly utterly ly 1 unable to r rd d themselves of o this fear tear They know the absurdity of it and they battie ba tle against it ft but In vain It is In fact pathological und and fre frequently frequently frequently it is accompanied by b other and symptoms of neurasthenia neurasthenia thenia or hysteria but this Is by no means true Invariably On the contra contrary ry I many persons In whom it is I strong are conspicuously sound soun in mind other otherwise otherwise otherwise wise r the dread of o blood and the fear of dead lead bodies are common The former is essentially a malady malad of civilization Savages seldom exhibit it ft even een slight slightly ly and they are never moved to nausea by the sight of ot blood In some civil civilized civilIzed persons it Is so strong that the sight of a bleeding wound causes ilo vio violent 10 lent sickness and unconsciousness fol followed followed followed lowed by dangerous exhaustion rod nd even by collapse Every medical school ol olhas has records of ot students who had to abandon their studies because they could not overcome their bia As a rule however the weakness soon yields to familiarity The medical med medical medIcal ical student who grows sick at his first operation later may become the vet veteran veteran veteran eran surgeon to whom blood seems no nomore more horrible than so much water bIa is widespread among all allI I 1 h ruman uman b i ft out but h n no h ruman uman b i ft out but n no i i very naturally it ItI I ches r hes Its most violent and remark auh aJl forms among savages There are tribes In Africa whose members flee i from the dead as from a pestilence They the put pm p t the care and burial of ot corpses Into the hands of slaves and distant tribes No doubt this fear of the dead had its origin not so much in religion and superstition as in a very real danger dan danger danger ger In the days of ot the great plagues contact with the dead was exceedingly hazardous A trio of queer are y ee e fear of sharp sharI in instruments instruments instruments ast the fear of lightning and the fear of dirt The first Is more common than Is generally generall supposed King James Tames I of ot England was one of ot Its most nota notable notable notable ble victims The sight of ot a drawn sword it is said would make him shudder and grow pale and he em employed employed employed the knife at table only by b a strong exercise of the will King George II suffered from the same fear He had the spear tops of a row of iron fence rails cut off oft because they made him tremble whenever he glanced at them It is not unu unusual ual to find men who are unable to shave themselves because the razor terrifies them When it is in the hands of ot a barber it does not disturb them so much but they are utterly unable to touch the handle themselves is so familiar that It scarcely needs description Every per person person person son has within his acquaintance a wo woman woman woman man who grows faint with terror whenever there is a thunderstorm Some of these unfortunates lock them themselves themselves themselves selves in a dark room or go to bed with the sheet pulled over their heads at the first flash of ot lightning If a storm comes up at night when of course the lightning is much more vivid than during the day their alarm is pitiable is a malady malad that af afflicts afflicts filets a great many housewives though in them it may be admitted it is of often often often ten more a virtue than a disease But Butin ButIn Butin in other persons per s It has ludicrous manifestations mani manifestations manifestations sometimes I There is on rec record record record ord the case of a man who so feared dirt that he washed his hands fifty times a day and changed collars every hour He spent thousands every year on Turkish baths shampooing and manicuring He could never bring h himself to wear the same ame suit of ot clothes two days in succession For Fortunately FortunatelY Fortunately this man was rich so his was looked upon by b his friends as a mere eccentricity Had he been poor it might have landed him in ina Ina Ina a lunatic asylum Acrophobia the fear Cear of ot high places often is complicated or caused by b a physical malady such as vertigo but now and then It appears alone Its victims have an intolerable dread of ot high altitudes They cannot be In Induced Induced induced by any means of persuasion to look from the roof root of o a high building or ascend a monument When they find themselves accidentally or un unavoidably unavoidably avoidably at a great grE at height they are seized by an impulse to leap IMP into space gp ce It is their knowledge of this suicidal impulse that makes them afraid of heights Two related but contrary adies adles are the fear of society and fear of loneliness are com common common common mon Almost li every ever village has lias Its recluse The malady malad is marked by a disinclination to meet strangers a hor horror horror horror of crowds crow s and as a rule by an aversion to the opposite sex Most MosS misogynists or are an also dIso It was so with the philosopher philosopher and ands ed sif with Th latter Dwelled welled dwelled alone took solitary walks received no visitors kept the blinds of his lodgings down and evolved a philosophy whose foundation stone st ne was a complete re renunciation r of all human n society love and companionship His view of the fair sex as at set et forth In his celebrated Essay on Women was essentially I 1 r that of an He believed indeed that It was good for man to be alone is nothing more nor less than a pathological exaggeration of ot the social instinct which is evident in all of us Dr Samuel Johnson the lexi lexicographer lexicographer was a typical He had a horror of ot loneliness In the worst phases of ot the vie vic victim Ie tim Um stands In actual horror of himself and is not happy unless the presence of ot others makes it possible for him to forget himself the fear of committing theft the fear of hydro hydrophobia hydrophobia hydrophobia phobia the fear of fire the fear of ot poisons bacillo phobia the fear of germs zoophobia the fear of ot animals the fear tear of bugs the fear of oC falling and a general state of ot fear tear and uneasiness all of tHese tUese have been differentiated and de described described described scribed by the experts The last named is called by the French folie toIle de do doute doubt lunacy and is characterized by bya b ba a chronic condition of doubt The on leaving a room turns back te to be sure that he has shut the thedoor thedoor thedoor door When hen ordering his dinner he h hesitates hesitate bet wen roast beef and roast lamb and then changes his order half halfa a dozen times before the meal reaches reach s the table On arising in the morning he debates whether he shall put on his left stocking or his right stocking firs Whenever he undertakes an act it is with doubt and hesitation and all aU In ii 1 all ali he lie has a miserable time of it The essential thing In all these fear maladies Is unreasonableness It would be unjust for instance to call the burnt child a the tha dominant characteristics of ot 1 Is a fear of fire lire that has no basis in an actual or possible experience And It If is the same with with all the other gen The sees germs |
