242 MORAL CAUSES OF MENTAL DIFFERENCE AND DISORDEE. 



the siskin betrays alarm if a master or mistress is seen with 

 an unaccustomed dress. 



The suddenness with which strange, because new, objects 

 are presented to an animal, and the natural timorousness of 

 the animal itself, have much to do with the nature of the re- 

 sult, with determining whether it shall be shock, terror, or sur- 

 prise. From this sense of strangeness arises the very common 

 dread or repugnance at the presence or approach of strangers 

 exhibited by so many dogs or other animals a phenomenon 

 comparable to the suspicion, want of confidence, or dislike so 

 often manifested by the child under similar circumstances. 



Objects that are really perfectly familiar, and that attract 

 no notice, or create no fear or other emotion under ordinary 

 circumstances, may appear unfamiliar and invested with 

 attributes of danger under unusual circumstances, including 

 darkness or twilight. Thus Houzeau tells us of the effect of 

 the sight of a fence on his own station on his own dog when 

 the animal approached it in the twilight after a fatiguing 

 day's work. Wild animals flee from their own companions 

 when dimly seen in the twilight or dark. The springbok, 

 oxen, and other animals in Africa show great inquietude, 

 become timid and suspicious, in tall herbage, where they 

 cannot see clearly before and around them. They manifest 

 a decided preference for the open country, where they can 

 watch the approach of enemies, and baffle them by speed or 

 otherwise. The use of blinkers in the horse operates in a 

 similar way, by preventing due vision on all sides, stimu- 

 lating a vivid or morbid imagination, creating fear and sus- 

 picion, perhaps a series of fancied, startling or terrifying 

 sights or sounds, amounting to sensorial or other delusions. 



It is in this way that the motion of objects inspires a 

 dread which the same bodies in their motionless state would 

 not arouse ; for instance, the very common, fitful, irregular, 

 sudden, eccentric movements caused by gusts of wind in 

 pieces of paper, straw, or other light substances. If these 

 movements are seen in certain lights, or under any other 

 exceptional or peculiar conditions, the alarm created may be 

 altogether disproportionate to the cause, and it may lead to 

 serious accidents to human life e.g., from the horse. 



