Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [548]
in civilized man, but which is unknown among savages. When the horror is aggravated to such an extent as to cause distressing symptoms or unconsciousness, it takes the name of hematophobia. There are many cases on record and nearly every physician has seen one or more, possibly among his colleagues.
Necrophobia and thanatophobia are allied maladies, one being the fear of dead bodies and the other the fear of death itself.
Anthropophobia is a symptom of mental disease consisting in fear of society. Beard, Mitchell, Baillarger, and others have made observations on this disease. The antithesis of this disease is called monophobia. Patients are not able to remain by themselves for even the shortest length of time. This morbid dread of being alone is sometimes so great that even the presence of an infant is an alleviation. Gelineau cites an instance in a man of forty-five which was complicated with agoraphobia.
Bacillophobia is the result of abnormal pondering over bacteriology. Huchard's case was in a woman of thirty-eight who, out of curiosity, had secretly read the works of Pasteur, and who seemed to take particular pleasure in conning over the causes of death in the health-reports. Goyard mentions an instance in a Swiss veterinary surgeon.
Kleptophobia, examples of which have been cited by Cullere, is the fear of stealing objects in view, and is often the prelude of kleptomania. The latter disease has gained notoriety in this country, and nearly every large store has agents to watch the apparently growing number of kleptomaniacs. These unfortunate persons, not seldom from the highest classes of society, are unable to combat an intense desire to purloin articles. Legal proceedings have been instituted against many, and specialists have been called into court to speak on this question. Relatives and friends have been known to notify the large stores of the thieving propensities of such patients.
Le Grande du Saulle has given to the disease in which there is a morbid doubt about everything done, the name folie de doute. Gray mentions a case in a patient who would go out of a door, close it, and then come back, uncertain as to whether he had closed it, close it again, go off a little way, again feel uncertain as to whether he had closed it properly, go back again, and so on for many times. Hammond relates the history of a case in an intelligent man who in undressing for bed would spend an hour or two determining whether he should first take off his coat or his shoes. In the morning he would sit for an hour with his stockings in his hands, unable to determine which he should put on first.
Syphilophobia is morbid fear of syphilis. Lyssophobia is a fear of hydrophobia which sometimes assumes all the symptoms of the major disease, and even produces death. Gelineau, Colin, Berillon, and others have studied cases. In Berillon's case the patient was an artist, a woman of brunet complexion, who for six years had been tormented with the fear of becoming mad, and in whom the symptoms became so intense as to constitute pseudobydrophobia. At their subsidence she was the victim of numerous hallucinations which almost drove her to the point of suicide.
Spermatophobia has been noticed among the ignorant, caused or increased by inspection of sensational literature, treatises on the subject of spermatorrhea, etc. Ferre mentions a woman of thirty-six, of intense religious scruples, who was married at eighteen, and lost her husband six years afterward. She had a proposition of marriage which she refused, and was prostrated by the humid touch of the proposer who had kissed her hand, imagining that the humidity was due to semen. She was several times overcome by contact with men in public conveyances, her fear of contamination being so great. Zoophobia, or dread of certain animals, has been mentioned under another chapter under the head of idiosyncrasies. Pantophobia is a general state of fear of everything and everybody. Phobophobia, the fear of being afraid, is another coinage of the wordmakers. The minor 'phobias, such as
Necrophobia and thanatophobia are allied maladies, one being the fear of dead bodies and the other the fear of death itself.
Anthropophobia is a symptom of mental disease consisting in fear of society. Beard, Mitchell, Baillarger, and others have made observations on this disease. The antithesis of this disease is called monophobia. Patients are not able to remain by themselves for even the shortest length of time. This morbid dread of being alone is sometimes so great that even the presence of an infant is an alleviation. Gelineau cites an instance in a man of forty-five which was complicated with agoraphobia.
Bacillophobia is the result of abnormal pondering over bacteriology. Huchard's case was in a woman of thirty-eight who, out of curiosity, had secretly read the works of Pasteur, and who seemed to take particular pleasure in conning over the causes of death in the health-reports. Goyard mentions an instance in a Swiss veterinary surgeon.
Kleptophobia, examples of which have been cited by Cullere, is the fear of stealing objects in view, and is often the prelude of kleptomania. The latter disease has gained notoriety in this country, and nearly every large store has agents to watch the apparently growing number of kleptomaniacs. These unfortunate persons, not seldom from the highest classes of society, are unable to combat an intense desire to purloin articles. Legal proceedings have been instituted against many, and specialists have been called into court to speak on this question. Relatives and friends have been known to notify the large stores of the thieving propensities of such patients.
Le Grande du Saulle has given to the disease in which there is a morbid doubt about everything done, the name folie de doute. Gray mentions a case in a patient who would go out of a door, close it, and then come back, uncertain as to whether he had closed it, close it again, go off a little way, again feel uncertain as to whether he had closed it properly, go back again, and so on for many times. Hammond relates the history of a case in an intelligent man who in undressing for bed would spend an hour or two determining whether he should first take off his coat or his shoes. In the morning he would sit for an hour with his stockings in his hands, unable to determine which he should put on first.
Syphilophobia is morbid fear of syphilis. Lyssophobia is a fear of hydrophobia which sometimes assumes all the symptoms of the major disease, and even produces death. Gelineau, Colin, Berillon, and others have studied cases. In Berillon's case the patient was an artist, a woman of brunet complexion, who for six years had been tormented with the fear of becoming mad, and in whom the symptoms became so intense as to constitute pseudobydrophobia. At their subsidence she was the victim of numerous hallucinations which almost drove her to the point of suicide.
Spermatophobia has been noticed among the ignorant, caused or increased by inspection of sensational literature, treatises on the subject of spermatorrhea, etc. Ferre mentions a woman of thirty-six, of intense religious scruples, who was married at eighteen, and lost her husband six years afterward. She had a proposition of marriage which she refused, and was prostrated by the humid touch of the proposer who had kissed her hand, imagining that the humidity was due to semen. She was several times overcome by contact with men in public conveyances, her fear of contamination being so great. Zoophobia, or dread of certain animals, has been mentioned under another chapter under the head of idiosyncrasies. Pantophobia is a general state of fear of everything and everybody. Phobophobia, the fear of being afraid, is another coinage of the wordmakers. The minor 'phobias, such as