Fear

Abstract

THE learned and eloquent Professor of Physiology at Turin has given us in the book which he has entitled “Fear,” an analysis of this mental condition and its accompanying physical states, which, marked as it is by scientific accuracy and couched in charming and even in poetical diction, will take high rank as a popular exposition of our knowledge of the expression of one of the most interesting of the emotions of both men and animals. The extent of ground which is covered by the author, and the amount of information which he has contrived to convey within a small compass, excites our astonishment and admiration. Nor, in spite of the complicated scientific problems which are dealt with, is, there a word of heavy reading from beginning to end The book is beyond measure interesting, and one that when taken up it is difficult to lay down unread. Clearly it was impossible in a work with this title to avoid gruesome details, and readers whose nerves are disagreeably affected by descriptions of morbid conditions may put the book down with a shudder when they arrive at a passage in which a pathological case, which is used to illustrate the argument, is painted in glowing language from the life. For the author has in no wise burked such details; on the contrary, they come before one from time to time in the work with a vividness which transports one bodily to the hospital ward, the asylum, the vivisection, table ! But there is at the same time such a strong under-current of sympathy with suffering pervading the whole, that while the reader will come away from the scenes depicted, deeply interested in the lessons which they teach, there is no fear that he will be rendered callous by the familiarity which he has acquired with their horrors.

Fear.

By Angelo Mosso. Translated from the fifth edition of the Italian, by E. Lough and F. Kiesow 8vo. Pp. 277. (London, New York, and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896.)