AGOROPHOBIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

AGOROPHOBIA.

Dr. Headley Neale describes in the 'Lancet' a rather singular disease to which some people are subject. It seems to be a .sort or hypochondria, but special enough to have got it name to itself, the word which heads this note. The term is from two Greek words which mean 'dread oil open spaces.' the attacks most frequently coming, on in such places as wide squares, open parks, etc. Dr. Neale was a victim to it himself for some years, and describes his feelings under an attack. It is a kind of nervous collapse in which the patient imagines that some terrible catastrophe is impending-, feels as if he were sinking: through the ground, and grasps whatever is nearest for support and safely. The attack usually passes off-ma minute or less. For years Dr. Neale dared not sit in the centre of a church, but was more at his ease in a seat nearthe door. When obliged occasionally to take a seat in the centre of the area he was almost certain to have an attack, and have to hold on by the book board in secret terror though quite conscious that his dread was a delusion. The disease seems to be rare, for though Dr. Neale has met with several cases of it, he speaks of other doctors being sceptical as to its reality. Those most liable to attack are professional men, particularly clergymen, and it seems to be almost, though not quite, unknown amongst working people.