ABSTRACT
ONE of the commonest fears is of water. Some genetic psychologists have attributed this to phylogeny, believing that for their conservation it was necessary for our remote ancestors instinctively to fear the water. This interpretation is questionable in the case of the morbid dreads which are so common and even violent in some cases, as in the wife of an ambassador, whose dread of the water was so great that she could never get into a full bath.
