INSTINCT. 417 



The effect of noise in heightening any terror we may- 

 feel in adult years is very marked. The hoivUng of the 

 storm, whether on sea or land, is a principal cause of our 

 anxiety when exposed to it. The writer has been interested 

 in noticing in his own person, while lying in bed, and kept 

 awake by the wind outside, how invariably each loud gust 

 of it arrested momentarily his heart. A dog, attacking us, 

 is much more dreadful by reason of the noises he makes. 



Strange men, and strange animals, either large or small, 

 excite fear, but especially men or animals advancing toward 

 us in a threatening way. This is entirely instinctive and 

 antecedent to experience. Some children will cry with 

 terror at their very first sight of a cat or dog, and it will 

 often be impossible for weeks to make them touch it. 

 Others will wish to fondle it almost immediately. Certain 

 kinds of ' vermin,' especially spiders and snakes, seem to 

 excite a fear unusually difficult to overcome. It is impos- 

 sible to say how much of this difference is instinctive and 

 how much the result of stories heard about these creatures. 

 That the fear of ' vermin ' ripens gradually, seemed to me 

 to be proved in a child of my own to whom I gave a live 

 frog once, at the age of six to eight months, and again when 

 he was a year and a half old. The first time he seized it 

 promptly, and holding it, in spite of its struggling, at last 

 got its head into his mouth. He then let it crawl up his 

 breast, and get upon his face, without showing alarm. But 

 the second time, although he had seen no frog and heard 

 no story about a frog between whiles, it was almost impos- 

 sible to induce him to touch it. Another child, a year old, 

 eagerly took some very large spiders into his hand. At 

 present he is afraid, but has been exposed meanwhile to 

 the teachings of the nursery. One of my children from her 

 birth upwards saw daily the pet pug-dog of the house, and 

 never betrayed the slightest fear until she was (if I recol- 



jScientific Series, vol. lii (New York, 1886), p. 265), it is said: "He very 

 tnuch disliked strange noises. Thunder, the rain falling on the skylight. 

 And especially the long drawn note of a pipe or trumpet, threw him into 

 such agitation as to cause a sudden affection of the digestive organs, and 

 it became expedient to keep him at a distance. When he was slightly in- 

 disposed, we made use of this kind of music with results as successful as 

 If we had administei'ed purgative medicine. " 



