October 15, 1886.1 



SCIENCE, 



351 



hands; often, as it seems probable, without resting 

 hand or arm on the table at all. Therefore there 

 is no coincidence of the lines in this part of the 

 composite, and the region of variation is wider 

 than that of any other part of the signature. 



All the signatures used in the accompanying 

 plate (seven in number) are unquestionably genu- 

 ine. With the exception of one, which is the 

 property of Dr. Frazer, they were carefully chosen 

 from a number of authenticated signatures in the 

 possession of the Historical society of Pennsylvania. 



No. 1 is on a letter dated Dec. 18, 1776, from 

 near the Falls of Trenton, and addressed to Wash- 

 ington's brother Samuel. 



No. 2 is on a letter dated Headquarters, Nov. 4, 

 1777, and is addressed to Lieut. -Col. Persifor Frazer, 

 then a prisoner of war in Philadelphia. 



No. 3 is on a letter dated Sept. 27, 1777, and is 

 to William Henry of Lancaster. 



No. 4 is the composite of all the rest. 



No. 5 is on a letter dated Headquarters in Mor- 

 ristown, Feb. 22, 1777. The person to whom the 

 letter was addressed is not stated. 



No. 6, dated Sept. 26, 1793, is affixed to the com- 

 mission of David Lenox. 



No. 7, of the same date, is affixed to David 

 Lenox's appointment as agent for the relief and 

 protection of American seamen. 



No. 8, dated May 24, 1799, closes a letter to 

 Thomson Mason. 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR. 



If a true psychology is physiological, and if the 

 physiological furniture of the world is largely the 

 result of a vast series of experiments of which 

 only the most successful ones have survived, it 

 ought to be possible to find an important useful 

 significance in the thought-habits, the instincts, 

 the will-mechanisms, the emotions of animals, 

 and more especially of man. It was this convic- 

 tion that set Darwin to work on his ' Expression 

 of the emotions in man and animals.' Among 

 these emotions there is one, very wide-spread in 

 the animal kingdom, as Dr. Romanes has shown 

 (' Mental evolution in animals '), very important 

 to the welfare of the animal, and typical of the 

 suggestive conceptions resulting from the positing 

 of a comparative and a physiological point of view, 

 — the emotion of fear. 



M. Charles Richet (Revue de deux mondes, July, 

 1886, pp. 73-118) considers it an apt time for pre- 

 senting the subject in a popular manner ; and it 

 may be equally Avorth while to give a short ac- 

 count of the scientific conception of fear, follow- 

 ing in the main the article of M. Richet. 



Emotions may be considered under two heads, 

 according as they attract or repel the object by 



which they are called up. The three chief emo- 

 tions of the latter class are pain, disgust, and fear. 

 Each of these emotions has a physical and a 

 psychical aspect. We use the word ' pain ' to 

 mean the sensation resulting from a cu.t finger, 

 and the emotion caused by the death of a friend. 

 We can be disgusted by a nauseous concoction, and 

 also morally disgusted at the mean conduct of a 

 supposed friend. There is the j)aralyzing efi'ect 

 caused by the sudden appearance of a lion, and 

 the dread of a coming examination. As in the 

 other emotions connected with a definite dis- 

 turbance of the nervous system, there appear in 

 the animal scale and in human development all 

 shades, from the siuiplest physical refiex to the 

 most elaborated, consciously willed action. But 

 the emotion itself — the fear — can be readily de- 

 tected in all these varying modes of expression. 



Repelling emotions are protective in their func- 

 tion. Pain gives us tidings of the condition of the 

 organism, and thus demands the needed remedy, 

 and averts injury. Disgust warns us of noxious 

 substances. The object of fear is to advertise and 

 escape danger to life. It would not do to leave the 

 danger to be avoided by a reasoned action : there 

 would be no time to form syllogisms. Nature puts 

 the emotion first, and the reasoning afterwards. 

 The chickens would soon disappear if they had not 

 an instinctive fear of the fox. There is, then, a 

 simple form of the emotion which expresses itself 

 by an unreasoned, involuntary reflex action. These 

 effects are well shown by the typical picture of 

 terror, — the pale features, the limbs fixed power- 

 less to move, trembling, chattering of teeth, 

 altered heart-beat, gasping breath, cold perspira- 

 tion, etc. These paralyzing effects of fear may 

 reach a dangerous intensity, and produce death 

 by arresting the activity of the heart. The story 

 told by Dr. Lauder Brunton, of an instructor who 

 had made himself obnoxious to the college stu- 

 dents, and, after being blindfolded, was subjected 

 by them to a process imitating death by decapita- 

 tion, and found to be really frightened to death, 

 is a case in point. It is said that condemned 

 criminals are often nearly dead with fright before 

 the instrument of death is applied. These physi- 

 cal effects of fear are best seen in the lower ani- 

 mals. The fear most commonly felt by us shows 

 itself in what may be called a psychic reflex. In 

 this case the sense stimulus is interpreted, and then 

 the reflex expression of fear follows. If during a 

 performance the rope of a trapeze breaks, the 

 sensations by which that fact is made known are 

 at once interpreted as a threatening danger, and 

 by the force of sympathy fear will possess the 

 spectators as well as the performer. Of course, 

 this is not a natural stimulus. 



