ORIGIN OF THERAPEUTIC BATHING 211 



with facts to mix " spirit " with water pure and simple, 

 when these problems are dealt with. Some of the beliefs 

 of existing, or lately existing, savage races show this con- 

 fusion plainly, and the highest authorities do not always 

 find it possible to distinguish between 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 

 B.C. Whatever the evidence was the truth would still be 

 a matter of doubt, for even what happened yesterday 

 may be a matter of conflict to-day. Yet we cannot scorn 

 evidence which is written in the very nature of the human 

 brain. 



Sacred wells are found all over the world. It is obvious 

 that they are now sacred because they are inhabited by 

 powerful spirits, or presided over by conquering saints who 

 displaced their predecessors ; but it must be remembered 

 that spirit is no more than a hypothesis to account for 

 the powers and actions of any given thing, seeing that 

 according to savage theory nothing can happen, as we say, 

 " of itself." To such a degree has the belief in the magical 

 efficacy and danger of water been impressed on man- 

 kind, that many people appear to have instincts concern- 

 ing it or, if not instincts, certain semi-instinctive nervous 

 affections which, without any particular reason or, so 

 far as can be discovered, without any definite cause, 

 become affections resembling phobias. If it is possible 

 to discover by analysis in psycho-therapeutics the deeply 

 hidden underlying cause of many nervous affections, it 

 may be that some disciple of Freud might be able to prove 

 to me that my own dread of deep or hidden running 

 waters is not instinctive but curable by discovery. Never- 

 theless, at the age of four or five, I had a peculiar horror 

 of wells. Even now I cannot approach a deep or dark 

 one without mental disturbance. This is not due to the 

 fear of depth or the mere possibility of losing my life by 



