The great physiologist Mosso gives a graphic description of the effects of fear in a pathetic case that has come under his personal observation: “As army surgeon, I had once to be present at the execution of some brigands. It was a summary judgment. A major of the _besaglieri_ put a few questions to one or two, then turning to the captain said simply: ‘Shoot them.’ I remember one lad, of scarcely twenty years of age, who mumbled replies to a few questions, then remained silent, in the position of a man warding off a fatal blow, with lifted arms, extended palms, the neck drawn between the shoulders, the head held sideways, the body bent and drawn backwards. When he heard the dreadful words he emitted a shrill, heart-rending cry of despair, looked around him, as though eagerly seeking something, then turned to flee, and rushed with outspread arms against a wall of the court, writhing and scratching it as though trying to force an entrance between the stones, like a polyp clinging to a rock. After a few screams and contortions, he suddenly sank to the ground, powerless and helpless like a log. He was pale and trembled as I have never seen anyone tremble since. It seemed as though the muscles had been turned to a jelly which was shaken in all directions.” CHAPTER XXXV FEAR VARIETIES The great psychologist Ribot classifies fears into pain fears, and disgust fears. To quote from Ribot: “I propose to reduce them (fears) to two groups. The first is directly connected with fear and includes all manifestations, implying in any degree whatever the fear of pain, from that of a fall or the prick of a needle, to that of illness or death. The second is directly connected with disgust, and seems to me to include the forms which have sometimes been called pseudophobia (Gelineau). Such are the fear of contact, the horror of blood and of innocuous animals, and many strange and causeless aversions. Let us remark furthermore that fear and disgust have a common basis, being both instruments of protection or defense. The first is the defensive-conservative instinct of relative life, the second the defensive-conservative instinct of organic life. As both have a common basis of aversion, they show themselves in equivalent ways: fear of withdrawal, departure, flight, disgust by vomiting and nausea: The reflexes of disgust are the succedanea of flight; the organism cannot escape by movement in space from the repugnant object which it has taken into itself, and goes through a movement of expulsion instead.”