OE ...'■■: vm '■•■■■■ ■:■■ 1 %u°. £ct6e. Q^jCJU^ . THE "W& - EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. FROM THE GERMAN OF J. F. C. BECKER, M.D. PROFESSOR AT THE FREDERICK WILLIAM'S UNIVERSITY AT BERLIN, AND MEMBER OF VARIOUS LEARNED SOCIETIES IN ALBANY, BERLIN, BONN, COPENHAGEN, DIJON, DRESDEN, ERLANGEN, HANAU, HEIDELBERG, LEIPZIG, LONDON, LYONS, MARSEILLES, METZ, NAPLES, NEW YORK, OFFENBURG, PHILADELPHIA, STOCKHOLM, TOULOUSE, WARSAW, AND ZURICH. TRANSLATED BY B. G. BABINGTON, M.D., F.B.S., ETC. Oirfc €bttvm, COMPLETED BY THE AUTHORS TREATISE CHILD-PILGRIMAGES. LONDON: TRUBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1859. ADDRESS TO THE READER. This Volume is one of the Series published by the Sydenham Society, and, as such, originally issued to its members only. The work having gone out of print, this new edition — the third — has been undertaken by the present proprietors of the Copyright, with the view not only of meeting the numerous demands from the class to which it was primarily addressed by its learned author, but also for extending its circulation to the general reader, to whom it had, heretofore, been all but inaccessible, owing to the peculiar mode of its publication, and to whom, it is believed, it will be very acceptable on account of the great and growing interest of its subject matter, and the elegant and successful treat- ment thereof. The volume is a verbatim reprint from the second edition ; but its value has been enhanced by the addition of a paper on " Child-Pilgrimages, "—never before translated, — and the present edition is therefore the first and only one in the English language, which contains all the contributions of Dr. Hecker to the Historv of Medicine. TEUBXEE AND CO. 00, Paternoster Row, London, October 1, 1859. 2056291 GENERAL peeface. The Council of the Sydenham Society having deemed Hecker's three treatises on different Epidemics occurring in the Middle Ages worthy of being collected into a volume, and laid before its members in an English dress, I have felt much pleasure in pre- senting them with the copyright of the Black Death ; in negociat- ing for them the purchase of that of the Dancing Mania, whereof I could resign only my share of a joint interest ; and, in preparing for the press these productions, together with a trans- lation, now for the first time made public, of the Sweating Sickness. This last work, from its greater length, and from the immediate relation of its chief subject to our own country, may be considered the most interesting and important of the series. Professor Hecker is generally acknowledged to be the most learned medical historian, and one of the most able medical writers in Germany. His numerous works suffice to show not only with what zeal he has laboured, but also how high-ly his labours have been appreciated by his countrymen ; and when I state that, with one trifling exception, they have all been trans- lated into other languages, I furnish a fair proof of the estima- tion in which they are held in foreign countries ; and, so far at least as regards the originals, a full justification of the Council of the S} r denham Society in their choice on the present occasion. The " Schwarze Tod," or " Black Death," was published in 1832 ; and I was prompted to undertake its translation, from a belief that it would prove interesting at a moment when another fearful epidemic, the Cholera, with which it admitted of com- parison in several particulars, was fresh in the memory of men. The " Tanzwuth," or " Dancing Mania," came out shortly after- wards ; and, as it appeared to me that, though relating to a less terrific visitation, it possessed an equal share of interest, and, holding a kind of middle place between a physical and a moral VI GENERAL PREFACE. pestilence, furnished subject of contemplation for the general as well as the professional reader, I determined on adding it also to our common stock of medical literature. When the " Englische Schweiss," or "Sweating Sickness," which contained much col- lateral matter little known in England, and which completed the history of the principal epidemics of the middle ages, appeared in 1834, I proceeded to finish in} 7 task ; but failing in the accom- plishment of certain arrangements connected with its publication, 1 laid aside my translation for the time, under a hope, which has at length been fulfilled, that at some future more auspicious moment, it might yet see the light. It must not be supposed that the author, in thus taking up the history of three of the most important epidemics of the middle ages, although he has illustrated them by less detailed notices of several others, considers that he has exhausted his sub- ject ; on the contrary, it is his belief, that, in order to come at the secret springs of these general morbific influences, a most minute as well as a most extended survey of them, such as can be made only by the united efforts of many, is required. He would seem to aim at collecting together such a number of facts, from the medical history of all countries and of all ages, as may at length enable us to deal with epidemics in the same way as Louis has dealt with individual diseases ; and thus by a numerical arrangement of data, together with a just consideration of their relative value, to arrive at the discovery of general laws. The present work, therefore, is but one stone of an edifice, for the construction of which he invites medical men in all parts of the •world to furnish materials. 1 Whether the information which could be collected even by the most diligent and extensive research would prove sufficiently co- pious and accurate to enable us to pursue this method with com- plete success, may be a matter of doubt ; but it is at least probable, that many valuable facts, now buried in oblivion, would thus be brought to light ; and the incidental results, as often occurs in the pursuit of science, might prove as serviceable as those which were the direct object of discovery. Of what im- mense importance, for instance, in the fourteenth century, would a general knowledge have been of the simple but universal cir- 1 I might here enlarge on the general importance of the study of epidemics ; but this has been so fully set forth in the author's Address to the Physicians of Germany, •which immediately follows, as well as in the Preface to the Sweating Sickness, at p. 164, that any further observations on this subject would be superfluous on my part. GENERAL PREFACE. Yll cumstance, that in all severe epidemics, from the time of Thucy- dides ' to the present day, a false suspicion has been entertained by the vulgar, that the springs or provisions have been poisoned, or the air infected, by some supposed enemies to the common weal. How many thousands of innocent lives would thus have been spared, which were barbarously sacrificed under this absurd notion ! "Whether Hecker's call for aid in his undertaking has, in any instance, been answered by the physicians of Germany, I know not ; but he will be as much pleased to learn, as I am to inform him, that it was the perusal of the " Black Death " which sug- gested to Dr. Simpson of Edinburgh the idea of collecting ma- terials for a history of the Leprosy, as it existed in Great Britain during the middle ages ; and that this author's very learned and interesting antiquarian researches on that subject, as published in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, have been the valuable, and, I trust, will not prove the solitary result. As the three treatises, now comprised for the first time under the title of " The Epidemics of the Middle Ages," came out at different periods, I have thought it best to prefix to each the original preface of the author ; and to the two which have already been published in English, that of the translator also ; while Hecker's Address to the Phj'sicians of Germany, although written before the publication of the "Englische Schweiss," forms an ap- propriate substitute for an author's general preface to the whole volume. At the end of the " Black Death," I had originally given, as No. III. of the Appendix, some copious extracts from Cams' " Boke or Counscill against the Disease commonly called the Sweate or Sweatyng Sicknesse ; " but this little treatise is so charactei'istic of the times in which it is written, so curious, so short, and so very scarce, 2 that I have thought it worth while, with the permission of the council of our Society, to reprint it entire, and to add it in its more appropriate place, as an Appendix to the Sweating Sickness. 1 wort teal tXkxQl VIC avriLv wg ol YliKoTrovvijmot (papfiaica to(3ifi\r]icoitv kg ru tppkara. Thucyd. Hist. B. ii. 49. " The disease was attributed by the people to poi- son, and nothing apparently could be more authentic than the reports that were spread of miscreants taken in the act of putting poisonous drugs into the food and drink of the common people." Observations on the Cholera in St. Petersburg, p. 9, by G. W. Lefevre, M.D. 8vo. 1831. 2 Only two copies are known to exist, one in the British Museum, and one in the library of the College of Physicians. ADDRESS TO THE PHYSICIANS OF GERMANY. By J. F. C. HECKER. It has long been my earnest desire to address my honoured col- leagues, especially those with whom I feel myself connected by congeniality of sentiment, in order to impress on them a subject in which science is deeply interested, and which, according to the direct evidence of Nature herself, is one of the most exalted and important that can be submitted to the researches of the learned. I allude to the investigation of Epidemic Diseases, on a scale com- mensurate with the extent of our exertions in other departments, and worthy of the age in which we live. It is, with justice, re- quired of medical men, since their sole business is with life, that they should regard it in a right point of view. They are expect- ed to have a perception of life, as it exists individually and collect- ively: in the former, to bear in mind the general system of crea- tion ; in the latter, to demonstrate the connexion and signification of the individual phenomena, — to discern the one by the aid of the other, and thus to penetrate, with becoming reverence, into the sanctuary of cosmical and microcosmical science. This ex- pectation is not extravagant, and the truth of the principles which the medical explorer of nature deduces from it, is so ob- vious, that it seems scarcely possible that any doubts should be entertained on the subject. Yet we may ask, Has medical science as it exists in our days, with all the splendour which surrounds it, with all the perfection of which it boasts, satisfied this demand ? This question we are obliged to answer in the negative. Let us consider only the doctrine of diseases, which has been cultivated since the commencement of scientific study. It has ADDRESS TO THE PHYSICIANS OF GERMANY. IX grown up amid the illumination of knowledge and the gloom of ignorance ; it has been nurtured by the storms of centuries^ ; its monuments of ancient and modern times cannot be numbered, and it speaks clearly to the initiated, in the languages of all civil- ized nations. Yet, hitherto, it has given an account only of in- dividual diseases, so far as the human mind can discern their nature. In this it has succeeded admirably, and its success be- comes every year greater and more extensive. But if we extend our inquiries to the diseases of nations, and of the whole human race, science is mute, as if it were not her province to take cognizance of them ; and shows us only an im- measurable and unexplored country, which many suppose to be merely a barren desert, because no one to whose voice they are wont to listen, gives any information respecting it. Small is the number of those who have traversed it; often have they arrested their steps, filled with admiration at striking phenomena ; have beheld inexhaustible mines waiting only for the hand of the la- bourer, and, from contemplating the development of collective organic life, which science nowhere else displays to them on so magnificent a scale, have experienced all the sacred joy of the naturalist to whom a higher source of knowledge has been open- ed. Yet could they not make themselves heard in the noisy tu- mult of the markets, and still less answer the innumerable ques- tions directed to them by many, as from one mouth, not indeed to inquire after the truth, but to obtain a confirmation of an ancient- ly received opinion, which originated in the fifth century before our era. Hence it is, that the doctrine of epidemics, surrounded by the other flourishing branches of medicine, remains alone unfruitful — we might almost say stunted in its growth. For, to the weighty opinions of Hippocrates, to the doctrines of Fracastoro which con- tain the experience of the much-tried Middle Ages, and lastly to the observations of Sydenham, only trifling and isolated facts have been added. Beyond these facts there exist, even up to the present times, only assumptions, which might, long since, have been reduced to their original nothingness, had that serious spirit of inquiry prevailed which comprehends space and penetrates ages. No epidemic ever prevailed during which the need of more ac- curate information was not felt, and during which the wish of the learned was not loudly expressed, to become acquainted with the secret springs of such stupendous engines of destruction. "Was the disease of a new character ? — the spirit of inquiry was roused b X ADDEESS TO THE among physicians ; nor were the most eminent of them ever de- ficient either in courage or in zeal for investigation. When the glandular plague first made its appearance as an universal epi- demic, whilst the more pusillanimous, haunted by visionary fears, shut themselves up in their closets, some physicians at Constanti- nople, astonished at the phenomenon, opened the boils of the deceased. The like has occurred both in ancient and modern times, not without favourable results for science ; nay, more ma- tured views excited an eager desire to become acquainted with similar or still greater visitations among the ancients ; but as later ages have always been fond of referring to Grecian antiquity, the learned of those times, from a partial and meagre predilection, were contented with the descriptions of Thucydides, even where nature had revealed, in infinite diversity, the workings of her powers. These researches, if indeed they deserved that name, were never scientific or comprehensive. They never seized but upon a part, and no sooner had' the mortality ceased, than the scarcely awaken- ed zeal relapsed into its former indifference to the interesting phe- nomena of nature, in the same way as abstemiousness, which had ever been practised during epidemics, only as a constrained virtue, gave place, as soon as the danger was over, to unbridled indul- gence. This inconstancy might almost bring to our mind the pious Byzantines who, on the shock of an earthquake, in 529, which appeared as the prognostic of the great epidemic, prostrated themselves before their altars by thousands, and sought to excel each other in Christian self-denial and benevolence ; but no sooner did they feel the ground firm beneath their feet, than they again abandoned themselves, without remorse, to all the vices of the metropolis. May I be pardoned for this comparison of scientific zeal with other human excitements ? Alas ! even this is a virtue which few practise for its own sake, and which, with the multi- tude, stands quite as much in need as any other, of the incentives of fear and reward. But we are constrained to acknowledge that among our medical predecessors, these incentives were scarcely ever sufficiently powerful to induce them to leave us circumstantial and scientific accounts of contemporary epidemics, which, nevertheless, have, even in historical times, afflicted, in almost numberless visitations, the whole human race. Still less did it occur to them to take a more exalted stand, whence they could comprehend at one view these stupendous phenomena of organic collective life, wherein PHYSICIANS OF GERMANY. XI the whole spirit of humanity powerfully and wonderfully moves, and thus regard them as one whole, in which higher laws of na- ture, uniting together the utmost diversity of individual parts, might be anticipated or perceived. Here a wide, and almost unfathomable, chasm occurs in the science of medicine, which, in this age of mature judgment and multifarious learning, cannot, as formerly, be overlooked. His- tory alone can fill it up ; she alone can give to the doctrine of diseases that importance without which its application is limited to occurrences of the moment ; whereas the development of the phenomena of life, during extensive periods, is no less a problem of research for the philosopher, who makes the boundless science of nature his study, than the revolutions of the planet on which we move. In this region of inquiry the very stones have a lan- guage, and the inscriptions are yet legible which, before the crea- tion of man, were engraved by organic life in wondrous forms on eternal tablets. Exalted ideas of the monuments of primaeval antiquity are here excited, and the forms of the antemundane ways and creations of nature are conjured up from the inmost bosom of the earth, in order to throw their bright beaming light upon the surface of the present. Medicine extends not so far. The remains of animals make us indeed acquainted, even now, with diseases to which the brute crea- tion was subject long ere the waters overflowed, and the moun- tains sunk ; but the investigation which is our more immediate ob- ject, scarcely reaches to the beginning of human culture. Records of remote and of proximate eras lie before us in rich abundance. They speak of the deviations and destructions of human life, of exterminated and newly-formed nations ; they lay before us stu- pendous facts, which we are called upon to recognise and expound in order to solve this exalted problem. If physicians cannot boast of having unrolled these records with the avidity of true explorers of Nature, they may find some excuse in the nature of the inquiry — for the characters are dead, and the spirits of which they are the magic symbols, manifest themselves only to him who knows how to adjure them. Epidemics leave no corporeal traces; whence their history is perhaps more intellectual than the science of the Geologist, who, on his side, possesses the advantage of treating on subjects which strike the senses, and are therefore more attract- ive, — such as the impressions of plants no longer extant, and the skeletons of lost races of animals. This, however, does not en- tirely exculpate us from the charge of neglecting our science, in a 1)2 Xll ADDRESS TO THE quarter where the most important facts are to be unveiled. It is high time to make up for what has been left unaccomplished, if we would not remain idle and mean-spirited in the rear of other naturalists. I was animated by these and similar reflections, and excited too by passing events, when I undertook to write the history of the " Black Death." With some anxiety, I sent this book into the world, for it was scarcely to be expected that it would be every- where received with indulgence, since it belonged to a hitherto unknown dejjartment of historical research, the utility of which might not be obvious in our practical times. Yet I soon received encouragement, not only from learned friends, but also from other men of distinguished merit, on whose judgment I placed great re- liance ; and thus I was led to hope that it was not in vain, and without some advantage to science, that I had unveiled the dismal picture of a long-departed age. This work I have followed, up by a treatise on a nervous dis- order, which, for the first time, appeared in the same century, as an epidemic, with symptoms that can be accounted for only by the spirit of the Middle Ages — symptoms which, in the manner of the diffusion of the disease among thousands of people, and of its propagation for more than two centuries, exercised a demoniacal influence over the human race, yet in close, though uncongenial, alliance with kindlier feelings. I have prepared materials for various other subjects, so far as the resources at my disposal ex- tend, and I may hope, if circumstances prove favourable, to complete, by degrees, the history of a more extensive series of Epidemics on the same plan as the " Black Death," and the "Dancing Mania." Amid the accumulated materials which past ages afford, the powers and the life of one individual, even with the aid of pre- vious study, are insufficient to complete a comprehensive history of Epidemics. The zealous activity of many must be exerted if we would speedily possess a work which is so much wanted in order that we may not encounter new epidemics with culpable ignorance of analogous phenomena. How often has it appeared on the breaking out of epidemics, as if the experience of so many centuries had been accumulated in vain. Men gazed at the phe- nomena with astonishment, and even before they had a just per- ception of their nature, pronounced their opinions, which, as they were divided into strongly opposed parties, they defended with all the ardour of zealots, wholly unconscious of the majesty of all- PHYSICIANS OF GERMANY. Xlll governing nature. In the descriptive branches of natm'al history, a person would infallibly expose himself to the severest censure, who should attempt to describe some hitherto unknown natural production, whether animal or vegetable, if he were ignorant of the allied genera and species, and perhaps neither a botanist nor zoologist ; yet an analogous ignorance of epidemics, in those who nevertheless discussed their nature, but too frequently occurred, and men were insensible to the justest reproof. Thus it has ever been, and for this reason we cannot apply to ourselves in this de- partment the significant words of Bacon, that we are the ancients, and our forefathers the moderns, for we are equally remote with them from a scientific and comprehensive knowledge of epidemics. This might and ought to be otherwise, in an age which, in other respects, may, with justice, boast of a rich diversity of knowledge, and of a rapid progress in the natural sciences. If in the form of an address to the physicians of Germany, I express the wish to see such a melancholy state of things remedied, the nature of the subject requires that, with the exception of the still prevailing Cholera, remarkable universal epidemics should be selected for investigation. They form the grand epochs, accord- ing to which those epidemics which are less extensive, but not, on that account, less worthy of observation, naturally range them- selves. Far be it from me to recommend any fixed series, or even the plan and method to be pursued in treating the subject. It would, perhaps, be, on the whole, most advantageous, if my hon- oured Colleagues, who attend to this request, were to commence with those epidemics for which they possess complete materials, and that entirely according to their own plan, without adopting any model for imitation, for in this manner simple historical truth will be best elicited. Should it, however, be found impracticable to furnish historical descriptions of entire epidemics, a task often at- tended with difficulties, interesting fragments of all kinds, for which there are rich treasures in JMSS. and scarce works in vari- ous places, would be no less welcome and useful towards the great object of preparing a collective history of epidemics. Up to the present moment, it might almost seem that the most essential preliminaries are wanting for the accomplishment of such an undertaking. The study of medical history is everywhere at a low ebb ; — in France and England scarcely a trace remains, to the most serious detriment of the whole domain of medicine ; in Germany too, there are but few who suspect that inexhaustible stores of instructive truth are lying dormant within their power; they XIV ADDRESS TO THE PHYSICIANS OF GERMANY. may, perhaps, class thorn among theoretical doctrines, and com- mend the laborious investigation of them without being willing to recognise their spirit. None of the Universities of Germany, whose business it ought to be to provide, in this respect, for the prosperity of the inheritance committed to their charge, can boast a Professor's chair for the History of Medicine; nay, in many, it is so entirely unknown, that it is not even regarded as an ob- ject of secondary importance, so that it is to be apprehended that the fame of German erudition may, at least in medicine, gradu- ally vanish, and our medical knowledge become, as practical in- deed, but at the same time as assuming, as mechanical, and as defective, as that of France and England. Even those noble in- stitutions, the Academies, in which the spirit of the eighteenth century still lingers, and whose more peculiar province it is to ex- plore the rich pages of science, have not entered upon the history of Epidemics, and by their silence have encouraged the unfound- ed and injurious supposition, that this field is desolate and un- fruitful. All these obstacles are indeed great, but to determined and persevering exertion they are not insuperable ; and, though we cannot conceal them from ourselves, we should not allow them to daunt our spirit. There is, in Germany, a sufficiency of intellect- ual power to overcome them; let this power be combined, and exert itself in active co-operation. Sooner or later a new road must be opened for Medical Science. Should the time not yet have arrived, I have at least endeavoured to discharge my duty, by attempting to point out its future direction. CONTENTS. General Preface Hecker's Address PAGE V via THE BLACK DEATH. Translator's Preface Preface General Observations The Disease CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. xx xxiii . 1 CHAPTER III. Causes. — Spread Mortality Moral Effects CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V 11 10 30 Physicians CHAPTER VI. 47 Appendix : — I. The Ancient Song of the Flagellants . . . . GI II. Examination of the Jews accused of poisoning the "Wells 70 XVI CONTENTS. THE DANCING MANIA. Preface Translator's Preface PAGE 75 7G CHAPTER I. DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS. Sect. 1. — St. John's Dance 2.— St. Vitus's Dance 3. — Causes .... 4. — More ancient Dancing Plagues 5. — Physicians 0. — Decline and Termination of the Dancing Plague 80 84 87 90 92 95 CHAPTER II. DANCING MANIA IN ITALY. Sect. 1. — Tarantism .... 2. — Most ancient Traces. — Causes 3. — Increase .... 4. — Idiosyncracies. — Music 5. — Hysteria .... G. — Decrease .... . 99 . 102 . 107 . 110 . 117 . 120 CHAPTER III. DANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINTA. Sect. 1. — Tigretier 123 CHAPTER IV. Sympathy ...... Appendix : — I. Extract from " Vita Gregorii XL," &c. II. Prom " Chronicon Magnum," &c. . III. Prom " die Limburger Chronik," &c. IV. Prom "die Chronica van Coellen," &c. . 129 . 143 . 144 . 145 . 14G V. Prom "an Account of Convulsive Diseases in Scotland," &c. 147 VI. Music for the Dance of the Tarantati, &c 157 CONTENTS. XV11 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. Preface TAGE 164 CHAPTER I. FIRST VISITATION. 1485. Sect.' 1. — Eruption 167 2. — The Physicians 171 3.— Causes 172 4. — Other Epidemics ....... 174 5. — Richmond's Army ....... 175 6. — Nature of the Sweating Sickness. — Preliminary Investi- gation ........ 176 CHAPTER II. SECOND VISITATION. 1506. Sect. Sect. 1. — Mercenary Troops .... . 179 2. — New Circumstances .... . 181 3. — Sweating Sickness .... . 182 4. — Accompanying Phenomena . . 183 5. — Petechial Eever in Italy, 1505 . 184 6. — Other Diseases ..... . 188 7. — Blood Spots ..... . 190 CHAPTER III. THIRD VISITATION. 1517. 1. — Poverty ...... . 193 2. — Sweating Sickness . . . 194 3. — Causes ...... . 196 4. — Habits of the English . 197 5. — Contagion ...... . 199 6. — Influenzas . . . 202 7.— Epidemics of 1517 .... . 207 XV111 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE IV. FOURTH VISITATION. 1528, 1529. Sect. 1. — Destruction of the French Army before Naples, 1528 2. — Trousse-G-alant in France, 1528, and the following years 3. — Sweating Sickness in England, 1528 4. — Natural Occurrences. — Prognostics • . . . 5. — Sweating Sickness in Germany, 1529 . the Netherlands Denmark, Sweden, and Norway 6. 7. 8.— Terror 9. — Moral Consequences 10. — The Physicians 11. — Pamphlets 12. — Form of the Disease PAGE 212 218 221 223 228 236 237 239 242 245 251 258 CHAPTER V. FIFTH VISITATION. 1551. Sect. 1.- 2.- 3.- 4.- 5.- — Irruption ....... —Extension and Duration — Causes. — Natural Phenomena —Diseases ...... —John Kaye ...... CHAPTEE VI. . 269 . 270 . 273 . 276 . 279 SWEATING SICKNESSES. Sect. 1. — The Cardiac Disease of the Ancients. (Morbus Cardiacus.) 284 2. — The Picardy Sweat. (Suette des Picards — Suette Mi- liare.) 292 3. — The Eoettingen Sweating Sickness .... 301 Chronological Survey ........ 306 Catalogue of "Works referred to ...... 313 Appendix. — A Boke, or Counseill against the Disease commonly called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse. By Jhon Caius '.323 Child- Pilgrimages . 315 THE BLACK DEATH. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. In reading Dr. Hecker's account of the Black Death, which de- stroyed so large a portion of the human race in the fourteenth century, I was struck, not only with the peculiarity of the author's views, but also with the interesting nature of the facts which he has collected. Some of these have never before been made generally known, while others have passed out of mind, being effaced from our memories by subsequent events of a similar kind, which, though really of less magnitude and import- ance, have, in the perspective of time, appeared greater, because they have occurred nearer to our own days. Dreadful as was the pestilence here described, and in few countries more so than in England, our modern historians only slightly allude to its visitation : — Hume deems a single paragraph sufficient to devote to its notice, and Henry and Rapin are equally brief. It may not then be unacceptable to the medical, or even to the general reader, to receive an authentic and somewhat detailed account of one of the greatest natural calamities that ever afflict- ed the human race. My chief motive, however, for translating this small work, and at this particular period, has been a desire that, in the study of the causes which have produced and propagated general pesti- lences, and of the moral effects by which they have been follow- ed, the most enlarged views should be taken. The contagionist and the anti-contagionist may each find ample support for his belief in particular cases ; but in the construction of a theory sufficiently comprehensive to explain throughout the origin and dissemination of universal disease, we shall not only perceive the insufficiency of either doctrine, taken singly, but after admit- ting the combined influence of both, shall even then find our views too narrow, and be compelled, in our endeavours to explain the facts, to acknowledge the existence of unknown powers, wholly translator's preface. xxi unconnected either with communication by contact or atmospheric contamination. I by no means wish it to be understood, that I have adopted the author's views respecting astral and telluric influences, the former of which, at least, I had supposed to have been, with alchemy and magic, long since consigned to oblivion ; much less am I prepared to accede to his notion, or rather an ancient notion derived from the East and revived by him, of an organic life in the system of the universe. We are constantly furnished with proofs, that that which affects life is not itself alive ; and whether we look to the earth for exhalations, to the air for elec- trical phenomena, to the heavenly bodies for an influence over our planet, or to all these causes combined, for the formation of some unknown principle noxious to animal existence, still, if we found our reasoning on ascertained facts, we can perceive nothing throughout this vast field for physical research which is not evident- ly governed by the laws of inert matter — nothing which resembles the regular succession of birth, growth, decay, death, and regen- eration, observable in organized beings. To assume, therefore, causes of whose existence we have no proof, in order to account for effects which, after all, they do not explain, is making no real advance in knowledge, and can scarcely be considered otherwise than an indirect method of confessing our ignorance. Still, however, I regard the author's opinions, illustrated as they are by a series of interesting facts diligently collected from authentic sources, as, at least, worthy of examination before we reject them, and valuable, as furnishing extensive data on which to build new theories. I have another, perhaps I may be allowed to say a better, motive for laying before my countrymen this narrative of the sufferings of past ages, — that by comparing them with those of our own time, we may be made the more sensible how lightly the chastening hand of Providence has fallen on the present genera- tion, and how much reason, therefore, we have to feel grateful for the mercy shown us. The publication has, with this view, been purposely somewhat delayed, in order that it might appear at a moment when it is to be presumed that men's thoughts will be especially directed to the approaching hour of public thanksgiving, and when a know- ledge of that which they have escaped, as well as of that which they have suffered, may tend to heighten their devotional feel- ings on that solemn occasion. xxii translator's treface. When we learn that, in the fourteenth century, one quarter, at least, of the population of the old world was swept away in the short space of four years, and that some countries, England among the rest, lost more than double that proportion of their inhabitants in the course of a few months, we may well congratulate our- selves that our visitation has not been like theirs, and shall not justly merit ridicule, if we offer our humble thanks to the " Crea- tor and Preserver of all mankind " for our deliverance. Nor would it disgrace our feelings if, in expiation of the abuse and obloquy not long since so lavishly bestowed by the public on the medical profession, we should entertain some slight sense of gratitude towards those members of the community, who were en- gaged, at the risk of their lives and the sacrifice of their personal interests, in endeavouring to arrest the progress of the evil, and to mitigate the sufferings of their fellow men. I have added, at the close of the Appendix, some extracts from a scarce little work in black letter, called " A Boke or Counseill against the Disease commonly called the Sweate or Sweatyng Sicknesse," published by Caius in 1552. This was written three years before his Latin treatise on the same subject, and is so quaint, and, at the same time, so illustrative of the opinions of his day, and even of those of the fourteenth century, on the causes of universal diseases, that the passages which I have quoted will not fail to afford some amusement as well as instruction. If I have been tempted to reprint more of this curious production than was necessary to my primary object, it ha3 been from a belief that it would be generally acceptable to the reader to gather some particulars regarding the mode of living in the sixteenth century, and to observe the author's animadversions on the degeneracy and credulity of the age in which he lived. His advice on the choice of a medical attendant cannot be too strongly recommended, at least by a physician ; and his warning against quackery, particularly the quackery of painters, who " scorne (quaere score ?) you behind your backs with their medicines, so filthy that I am ashamed to name them," seems quite prophetic. In conclusion, I beg to acknowledge the obligation which I owe to my friend Mr. H. E. Lloyd, whoso intimate acquaintance with the German language and literature will, I hope, be re- ceived as a sufficient pledge that no very important errors remain in a translation which he has kindly revised. London, 1833. PREFACE. We here find an important page of the history of the world laid open to our view. It treats of a convulsion of the human race, unequalled in violence and extent. It speaks of incredible disas- ters, of despair and unbridled demoniacal passions. It shows us the abyss of general licentiousness, in consequence of an univer- sal pestilence, which extended from China to Iceland and Green- land. The inducement to unveil this image of an age, long since gone by, i3 evident. A new pestilence has attained almost an equal extent, and though less formidable, has partly produced, partly indicated, similar phenomena. Its causes, and its diffusion over Asia and Europe, call on us to take a comprehensive view of it, because it leads to an insight into the organism of the world, in which the sum of organic life is subject to the great powers of Nature. Now, human knowledge is not yet sufficiently advanced, to discover the connexion between the processes which occur above, and those which occur below, the surface of the earth, or even fully to explore those laws of nature, an acquaintance with which would be required ; far less to apply them to great phenomena, in which one spring sets a thousand others in motion. On this side, therefore, such a point of view is not to be found, if we would not lose ourselves in the wilderness of conjectures, of which the world is already too full : but it may be found in the ample and productive field of historical research. History — that mirror of human life in all its bearings, offers, even for general pestilences, an inexhaustible, though scarcely explored, mine of facts ; here too it asserts its dignity, as the philosophy of reality delighting in truth. It is conformable to its spirit to conceive general pestilences as events affecting the whole world — to explain their phenomena by the comparison of what is similar. Thus the facts speak for them- selves, because they appear to have proceeded from those higher laws which govern the progression of the existence of mankind. A cosmical origin and convulsive excitement, productive of the XXIV PREFACE. most important consequences among the nations subject to them, are the most striking features to which history points in all gen- eral pestilences. These, however, assume very different forms, as well in their attacks on the general organism, as in their diffusion ; and in this respect a development from form to form, in the course of centuries, is manifest, so that the history of the world is divid- ed into grand periods in which positively defined pestilences pre- vailed. As far as our chronicles extend, more or less certain information can be obtained respecting them. But this part of medical history, which has such a manifold and powerful influence over the history of the world, is yet in its in- fancy. For the honour of that science which should everywhere guide the actions of mankind, we are induced to express a wish, that it may find room to flourish amidst the rank vegetation with which the field of German medical science is unhappily encum- bered. ERRATA.-CHILD-PILGRIMAGES. Page 348, line 5 from foot, for part read past — 350, line 4, for regarding read regarded 353, line 14, for Arrnstadt read Arnstadt — 357, line 10, for Christian- read Christian. — — line 28, for coveteousness read covetousness — — line 5 from foot, dele' : usa' — 359, line 27, for Tebb read Jebb — 360, /wje 17, for perpradictum read per prsedictum THE BLACK DEATH. CHAPTER I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. That Omnipotence which has called the world with all its living creatures into one animated being, especially reveals himself in the desolation of great pestilences. The powers of creation come into violent collision ; the sultry dryness of the atmosphere ; the subterraneous thunders ; the mist of overflowing waters, are the harbingers of destruction. Nature is not satisfied with the ordin- ary alternations of life and death, and the destroying angel waves over man and beast his flaming sword. These revolutions are performed in vast cycles, which the spirit of man, limited, as it is, to a narrow circle of perception, is unable to explore. They are, however, greater terrestrial events than any of those which proceed from the discord, the distress, or the passions of nations. By annihilations they awaken new life ; and when the tumult above and below the earth is past, nature is re- novated, and the mind awakens from torpor and depression to the consciousness of an intellectual existence. Were it in any degree within the power of human research to draw up, in a vivid and connected form, an historical sketch of such mighty events, after the manner of the historians of wars and battles, and the migrations of nations, we might then arrive at clear views with respect to the mental development of the hu- man race, and the ways of Providence would be more plainty dis- cernible. It would then be demonstrable, that the mind of nations is deeply affected by the destructive conflict of the powers of na- ture, and that great disasters lead to striking changes in general civilization. For all that exists in man, whether good or evil, is rendered conspicuous by the presence of great danger. His in- l 2 THE BLACK DEATH. most feelings are roused — the thought of self-preservation masters his spirit — self-denial is put to severe proof, and wherever dark- ness and barbarism prevail, there the affrighted mortal flies to the idols of his superstition, and all laws, human and divine, are criminally violated. In conformity with a general law of nature, such a state of ex- citement brings about a change, beneficial or detrimental, accord- ing to circumstances, so that nations either attain a higher degree of moral worth, or sink deeper in ignorance and vice. All this, however, takes place upon a much grander scale than through the ordinary vicissitudes of war and peace, or the rise and fall of em- pires, because the powers of nature themselves produce plagues, and subjugate the human will, which, in the contentions of nations, alone predominates. CHAPTER II. THE DISEASE. The most memorable example of what has been advanced, is afforded by a great pestilence of the fourteenth century, which desolated Asia, Europe, and Africa, and of which the people yet preserve the remembrance in gloomy traditions. It was an ori- ental plague, marked by inflammatory boils and tumours of the glands, such as break out in no other febrile disease. On account of these inflammatory boils, and from the black spots, indicatory of a putrid decomposition, which appeared upon the skin, it was called in Germany and in the northern kingdoms of Europe, the Black Death, and in Italy, la Mortalega Grande, the Great Mortality} Few testimonies are presented to us respecting its symptoms and its course, yet these are sufficient to throw light upon the form of the malady, and they are worthy of credence, from their co- incidence with the signs of the same disease in modern times. »* 1 La Mortalega Grande. Matth. de Griffonibus. Muratori. Script, rer. Italiear. T. XVIII. p. 167. D. They were called by others Anguinalgia. Andr. Gratiol. Dis- corso di Teste. Venet. 1576. 4to. Swedish : Diger-dvden. Loccenii Histor. Suecan. L. III. p. 104. — Danish : den sortc Dod. rontan. Eer. Danicar. Histor. L. TUT. p. 476. — Amstelod. 1631, fol. Icelandic : Svatur Daudi. Saabye, Tagcbuch in Gronland. Introduction XVIII. Mansa, dc Epidemiis maxime mcniorabililms, quno in Dania gras- satrc sunt, &c. Tart I. p. 12. Havnioe, 1831, 8.— In Westphalia the name of de groete Doet was prevalent. Mcibom. THE DISEASE. 3 The imperial writer, Kantakusenos, 1 whose own son, Androni- kus, died of this plague in Constantinople, notices great impos- thumes 2 of the thighs and arms of those affected, which, when opened, afforded relief by the discharge of an offensive matter. Buboes, which are the infallible signs of the oriental plague, are thus plainly indicated, for he makes separate mention of smaller boils on the arms and in the face, as also in other parts of the body, and clearly distinguishes these from the blisters, 3 which are no less produced by plague in all its forms. In many cases, black spots 4 broke out all over the body, either single, or united and confluent. These symptoms were not all found in every case. In many one alone was sufficient to cause death, while some patients re- covered, contrary to expectation, though afflicted with all. Symp- toms of cephalic affection were frequent ; many patients became stupified and fell into a deep sleep, losing also their speech from palsy of the tongue ; others remained sleepless and without rest. The fauces and tongue were black, and as if suffused with blood ; no beverage would assuage their burning thirst, so that their sufferings continued without alleviation until terminated by death, which many in their despair accelerated with their own hands. Contagion was evident, for attendants caught the disease of their relations and friends, and many houses in the capital were bereft even of their last inhabitant. Thus far the ordinary circumstances only of the oriental plague occurred. Still deeper sufferings, how- ever, were connected with this pestilence, such as have not been felt at other times ; the organs of respiration were seized with a putrid inflammation ; a violent pain in the chest attacked the patient ; blood was expectorated, and the breath diffused a pesti- ferous odour. In the West, the following wore the predominating symptoms on the eruption of this disease. 5 An ardent fever, accompanied by an evacuation of blood, proved fatal in the first three days. It appeal's that buboes and inflammatory boils did not at first come out at all, but that the disease, in the form of carbuncular (anthrax- 1 Joann. Cantacuzen. Historian L. IV. c. 8. Ed. Paris, p. 730. 5. The ex-em- peror has indeed copied some passages from Thucydidcs, as Rprengel justly observes (Appendix to the Geschichte der Medicin. Vol. I. II. I. S. 73), though this was most probably only for the sake of rounding a period. This is no detriment to his credibility, because his statements accord with the other accounts. 2 ' AiroGTuatiQ fxtyakai. 3 Mika'tvai ovv Faifiovi raxd), 'Qg tclkoiQ' inr' tpiorog 6 Mvvdiog avr'iKa AiXfitg. See Potter's Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 251. and Horace — "Lanea ct effigies erat, altera cerea." Lib. 1. Sat. 8. I. 30. Transl. note. 2 See Arjricola, loc. cit. p. 269. No. 498. ITS DECLINE AND TERMINATION. 95 Paracelsus recommended harsh treatment and strict fasting. He directed that the patients should be deprived of their liberty ; placed in solitary confinement, and made to sit in an uncomfort- able place, until their misery brought them to their senses and to a feeling of penitence. He then permitted them gradually to return to their accustomed habits. Severe corporal chastisement was not omitted ; but, on the other hand, angry resistance on the part of the patient was to be sedulously avoided, on the ground that it might increase his malady, or even destroy him : moreover, where it seemed proper, Paracelsus allayed the excitement of the nerves by immersion in cold water. On the treatment of. the third kind we shall not here enlarge. It was to be effected by all sorts of wonderful remedies, composed of the quintessences ; and it would require, to render it intelligible, a more extended ex- position of peculiar principles than suits our present purpose. Sect. 6. — Decline and Termination of the Dancing Plague. About this time the St. Vitus's dance began to decline, so that milder forms of it appeared more frequently, while the severer cases became more rare ; and even in these, some of the important sjonptoms gradually disappeared. Paracelsus makes no mention of the tympanites as taking place after the attacks, although it may occasionally have occurred ; and Schenck von Graffenberg, a celebrated physician of the latter half of the sixteenth century, 1 speaks of this disease as having been frequent only in the time of his forefathers ; his descriptions, however, are applicable to the whole of that century, and to the close of the fifteenth. 2 The St. Vitus's dance attacked people of all stations, especially those who led a sedentary life, such as shoemakers and tailors ; but even the most robust peasants abandoned their labours in the fields, as if they were possessed by evil spirits ; and thus those affected were seen assembling indiscriminately, from time to time, at certain appointed places, and, unless prevented by the lookers-on, con- tinuing to dance without intermission, until their very last breath was expended. Their fury and extravagance of demeanour so completely deprived them of their senses, that many of them dashed their brains out against the walls and corners of buildings, 1 Johann Schenck vo7i Graffenberg, born 1530, took Lis degree at Tiibingen, in 1554. He passed the greater part of his life as physician to the corporation of Freiburg in the Breisgau, and died in 1598. 2 J. Schoikii a Graffenberg Observationum medicarum, rariarura, &c. Libri VII. Lugdun. 1643. fol. L. I. Obs. VIII. p. 136. 96 THE DANCING MANIA. or rushed headlong into rapid rivers, where they found a watery grave. Roaring and foaming as they were, the by-standers could only succeed in restraining them by placing benches and chairs in their way, so that, by the high leaps they were thus tempted to take, their strength might be exhausted. As soon as this was the case, they fell as it were lifeless to the ground, and, by very slow degrees, again recovered their strength. Many there were who, even with all this exertion, had not expended the violence of the tempest which raged within them, but awoke with newly re- vived powers, and again and again mixed with the crowd of dancers, until at length the violent excitement of their disordered nerves was allayed by the great involuntary exertion of their limbs ; and the mental disorder was calmed by the extreme ex- haustion of the body. Thus the attacks themselves were in these cases, as in their nature they are in all nervous complaints, neces- sary crises of an inward morbid condition, which was transferred from the sensorium to the nerves of motion, and, at an earlier period, to the abdominal plexus, where a deep-seated derange- ment of the system was perceptible from the secretion of flatus in the intestines. The cure effected by these stormy attacks was in many cases so perfect, that some patients returned to the factory or the plough as if nothing had happened. Others, on the contrary, paid the penalty of their folly by so total a loss of power, that they could not regain their former health, even by the employment of the most strengthening remedies. Medical men were astonished to observe that women in an advanced state of pregnancy were ca- pable of going through an attack of the disease, without the slightest injury to their offspring, which they protected merely by a bandage passed round the waist. Cases of this kind were not unfrequent so late as Schenck's time. That patients should be violently affected by music, and their paroxysms brought on and increased by it, is natural with such nervous disorders ; where deeper impressions are made through the ear, which is the most in- tellectual of all the organs, than through any one of the other senses. On this account the magistrates hired musicians for the purpose of carrying the St. Vitus's dancers so much the quicker through the attacks, and directed, that athletic men should be sent among them in order to complete the exhaustion, which had been often observed to produce a good effect. 1 At the same time there was a 1 It is related by Felix Plater (born 1536, died 1614) that he remembered in his ITS DECLINE AND TERMINATION. 07 prohibition against wearing red garments, because at the sight of this colour, those affected became so furious, that they flew at the persons who wore it, and were so bent upon doing them an injury that they could with difficulty be restrained. They frequently tore their own clothes whilst in the paroxysm, and were guilty of other improprieties, so that the more opulent employed confiden- tial attendants to accompany them, and to take care that they did no harm either to themselves or others. This extraordinary dis- ease was, however, so greatly mitigated in Schenck's time, that the St. Vitus's dancers had long since ceased to stroll from town to town ; and that physician, like Paracelsus, makes no mention of the tympanitic inflation of the bowels. Moreover, most of those affected were only annually visited by attacks ; and the occasion of them was so manifestly referrible to the prevailing notions of that period, that if the unqualified belief in the super- natural agency of saints could have been abolished, they would not have had any return of the complaint. Throughout the whole of June, prior to the festival of St. John, patients felt a disquietude and restlessness which they were unable to overcome. They were de- jected, timid, and anxious ; wandered about in an unsettled state, being tormented with twitching pains, which seized them suddenly in different parts, and eagerly expected the eve of St. John's day, in the confident hope, that by dancing at the altars of this saint, or of St. Vitus (for in the Breisgau aid was equally sought from both), they would be freed from all their sufferings. This hope was not disappointed ; and they remained, for the rest of the year, exempt from any further attack, after having thus, by dancing and raving for three hours, satisfied an irresistible demand of nature. There were at that period two chapels in the Breisgau, visited by the St. Vitus's dancers ; namely, the Chapel of St. Vitus at Biessen, near Breisach, and that of St. John, near Wasenwieler ; and it is probable that in the south-west of Germany the disease was still in existence iu the seventeenth century. However, it grew every year more rare, so that, at the begin- youth the authorities of Basle having commissioned several powerful men to dano> with a girl who had the dancing mania, till she recovered from her disorder. They success- ively relieved each other ; and this singular mode of cure lasted above four weeks, when the patient fell down exhausted, and being quite unable to stand, was carried to an hospital, where she recovered. She had remained in her clothes all the time, and entirely regardless of the pain of her lacerated feet, she had merely sat down occasion- ally to take some nourishment, or to slumber, during which the hopping movement of her body continued. Felic. Plateri Praxeos medico opus. L. I. ch. 3. p. 88. Tom. I. Basil. 1656. 4to. Ejusd. Observation. Basil. 1611. 8. p. 92. 7 98 THE DANCING MANIA. ning of the seventeenth century, it was observed only occasionally in its ancient form. Thus in the spring of the year 1623, Gr. Horst saw some women who annually performed a pilgrimage to St. Yitus's chapel at Drefelhausen, near Weissenstein, in the terri- tory of Ulm, that they might wait for their dancing fit there, in the same manner as those in the Breisgau did, according to Schenck's account. They were not satisfied, however, with a dance of three hours' duration, but continued day and night in a state of mental aberration, like persons in an ecstasy, until they fell exhausted to the ground ; and when they came to themselves again, they felt relieved from a distressing uneasiness and painful sensation of weight in their bodies, of which they had complained for several weeks prior to St. Vitus's day. 1 After this commotion they remained well for the whole year ; and such was their faith in the protecting power of the saint, that one of them had visited this shrine at Drefelhausen more than twenty times, and another had already kept the Saint's day for the thirty-second time at this sacred station. The dancing fit itself was excited here, as it probably was in other places, by music, from the effects of which the patients were thrown into a state of convulsion. 2 Many concurrent testimonies serve to show that music generally contributed much to the con- tinuance of the St. Vitus's dance, originated and increased its paroxysms, and was sometimes the cause of their mitigation. So early as the fourteenth century, the swarms of St. John's dancers were accompanied by minstrels playing upon noisy instruments, who roused their morbid feelings ; and it may readily be supposed that, by the performance of lively melodies, and the stimulating effects which the shrill tones of fifes and trumpets would produce, a paroxysm, that was perhaps but slight in itself, might, in many cases, be increased to the most outrageous fury, such as in later times was purposely induced in order that the force of the disease might be exhausted by the violence of its attack. Moreover, by means of intoxicating music a kind of demoniacal festival for the rude multitude was established, which had the effect of spreading this unhappy malady wider and wider. Soft harmony was, how- ever, employed to calm the excitement of those affected, and it is mentioned as a character of the tunes played with this view to the 1 The 15th of June. Here therefore they did not wait till the Festival of St. John. 2 Gregor. Horstii Observitionum medicinalium singularium Libri IV. priores. His aeeessit Epistolarura et Consultationum medicar. Lib. I. Ulm. 1628. 4to. Epistol. p. 374. TARANTISM. 99 St. Vitus's dancers, that they contained transitions from a quick to a slow measure, and passed gradually from a high to a low key. 1 It is to be regretted that no trace of this music has reached our times, which is owing partly to the disastrous events of the seven- teenth century, and partly to the circumstance that the disorder was looked upon as entirely national, and only incidentally con- sidered worthy of notice by foreign men of learning. If the St. Vitus's dance was already on the decline at the commencement of the seventeenth century, the subsequent events were altogether adverse to its continuance. Wars carried on with animositv and with various success for thirty years, shook the west of Europe ; and although the unspeakable calamities which they brought upon Germany, both during their continuance and in their immediate consequences, were by no means favourable to the advance of knowledge, yet, with the vehemence of a purifying fire, they gradually effected the intellectual regeneration of the Germans ; superstition, in her ancient form, never again appeared, and the belief in the dominion of spirits, which prevailed in the middle ages, lost for ever its once formidable power. CHAPTER II. DANCING MANIA IN ITALY. Sect. 1. — Tauantism. It was of the utmost advantage to the St. Vitus's dancers that they made choice of a favourite patron saint ; for not to mention that people were inclined to compare them to the possessed with evil spirits, described in the Bible, and thence to consider them as innocent victims to the power of Satan, the name of their great intercessor recommended them to general commiseration, and a magic boundary was thus set to every harsh feeling which might otherwise have proved hostile to their safety. Other fanatics were not so fortunate, being often treated with the most relentless cruelty whenever the notions of the middle ages cither excused or commanded it as a religious duty. 2 Thus, passing over the innu- 1 Jo. Bodin. Method, historic. Amstelod. 1650. 12mo, Ch. V. p. 99.— Idem, do Republica. Francofurt. 1591. 8vo. Lib. V. Ch. I. p. 789. - A very remarkable case, illustrative in part of this observation, where, however, not the person who was supposed to be the subject of the demoniacal malady, but its alleged authors, were punished, is thus reported by Dr. Watt of Glasgow .—" It occurred at 7 * 100 THE DANCING MANIA. merable instances of the burning of witches, who were, after all, only labouring under a delusion, the Teutonic knights in Prussia not unfrequently condemned those maniacs to the stake who imagined themselves to be metamorphosed into wolves ' — an ex- traordinary species of insanit}* - , which, having existed in Greece, before our era, spread, in process of time, over Europe, so that it was communicated not only to the Romaic, but also to the German and Sarmatian nations, and descended from the ancients, as a legacy of affliction to posterity. In modern times Lycanthropy, such was the name given to this infatuation, has vanished from the earth, but it is nevertheless well worthy the consideration of the observer of human aberrations, and a history of it by some Bargarran, in Renfrewshire, in 1696. The patient's name was Christian Shaw, a girl of eleven years of age. She is described as having had violent fits of leaping, dancing, running, crying, fainting, &c, but the whole narrative is mixed up with so much credulity and superstition, that it is impossible to separate truth from fiction. These strange fits continued from August, 1696, till the end of March in the year following, when the patient recovered." An account of the whole was published at Edinburgh, in 1698, entitled " A true Narrative of the Sufferings of a Young Girl, who was strangely mo- lested by evil spirits, and their instruments, in the West, collected from authentic testimonies." The whole being ascribed to witchcraft, the clergy were most active on the occasion. Besides occasional days of humiliation, two solemn fasts were observed throughout the whole bounds of the Presbytery, and a number of clergymen and elders were appointed in rotation, to be constantly on the spot. So far the matter was well enough. But such was the superstition of the age, that a memorial was presented to his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, and on the 19th of January, 1697, a warrant was issued, setting forth " that there were pregnant grounds of suspicion of witchcraft in Renfrew- shire, especially from the afflicted and extraordinary condition of Christian Shaw, daughter of John Shaw, of Bargarran." A commission was therefore granted to Alexander Lord Blantyre, Sir John Maxwell, Sir John Shaw, and five others, together with the sheriff of the county, to inquire into the matter, and report. This commission is signed by eleven privy councillors, consisting of some of the first noblemen and gentlemen in the kingdom. The report of the commissioners having fully confirmed the suspicions respecting the existence of witchcraft, another warrant was issued on the 5th of April, 1697, to Lord Hallcraig, Sir John Houston, and four others, " to try the persons accused of witchcraft, and to sentence the guilty to be burned, or otherwise executed to death, as the commis- sion should incline." The commissioners, thus empowered, were not remiss in the discharge of their duty. After twenty hours were spent in the examination of witnesses, and counsel heard on both sides, the counsel for the prosecution " exhorted the jury to beware of condemning the innocent: but at the same time, should they acquit the prisoners in opposition to legal evidence, they would be accessory to all the blasphemies, apostacies, murders, tor- tures, and seductions, whereof these enemies of heaven and earth should hereafter be guilty." After the jury had spent six hours in deliberation, seven of the miserable wretches, three men and four women, were condemned to the flames, and the sentence faithfully executed at Paisley, on the 10th of June, 1697.— Medico- Chirnrg. Trans. Vol. V. p. 20, et seq. — Transl. note. 1 Compare Olaus Magnus, de gentibus sqitentrionalibus. Lib. XVIII. Ch. 45—47. p. 642, seq. Rom. 1555. fol. TARANTISM. 101 writer who is equally well acquainted with the middle ages as with antiquity, is still a desideratum. 1 We leave it for the present, without further notice, and turn to a malady most extraordinary in all its phenomena, having a close connexion with the St. Vitus' s 1 Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, has the following observations, which, with the ample references by which they are accompanied, will furnish materials for such a history. " Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calls cucubuth, others lupinam insaniam, or wolf- madness, when men run howling about graves and fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves, or some such beasts. A'etius (Lib. 6. cap. 11.) and Paulus (Lib. 3. cap. 16.) call it a kind of melancholy ; but I should rather refer it to madness, as most do. Some make a doubt of it, whether there be any such disease. Donat. ab Altomari (Cap. 9. Art. Med.) saith, that he saw two of them in his time: Wierus (De Prasstig. Demonum, 1. 3. cap. 21.) tells a story of such a one at Padua, 1541, that would not believe to the contrary but that he was a wolf. He hath another instance of a Spaniard, who thought himself a bear. Forestus (Observat. lib. 10. de Morbis Cerebri, c. 15.) confirms as much by many examples ; one, among the rest, of which he was an eye-witness, at Alcmaer in Holland.— A poor husbandman that still hunt- ed about graves, and kept in chm-chyards, of a pale, black, ugly, and fearful look. Such, belike, or little better, were king Prcetus' daughters (Hippocrates lib. de insania), that thought themselves kine : and Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel, as some interpreters hold, was only troubled with this kind of madness. This disease, perhaps, gave occasion to that bold assertion of Pliny (Lib. 8. cap. 22. homines interdum lupos fieri; et contra), some men were turned into wolves in his time, and from wolves to men again ; and to that fable of Pausanias, of a man that was ten years a wolf, and afterwards turned to his former shape; to Ovid's (Met. lib. 1.) tale of Lycaon, &c. He that is desirous to hear of this disease, or more examples, let him read Austin in his eighteenth book, de Civitate Dei, cap. 5; Mizaldus, cent. 5. 77; Schenkius, lib. 1. Hildesheim, Spicil. 2. de mania; Forestus, lib. 10. de morbis cerebri; Olaus Magnus ; Vicentius Bellavicensis, spec. met. lib. 31. c. 122; Pierius, Bodine, Zuingcr, Zeilgur, Peucer, Wierus, Spranger, §c. This malady, saith Avicenna, troubleth men most in February, and is now-a-days fre- quent in Bohemia and Hungary, according to Ileurnius. (Cap. de Man.) Schernitzius will have it common in Livonia. They lie hid, most part, all day, and go abroad in the night, barking, howling, at graves and deserts ; they have usually hollow eyes, scabbed legs and thighs, very dry and pale (Ulcerata crura ; sitis ipsis adest immodica ; pallidi ; lingua sicca), saith Altomarus : he gives a reason there of all the symptoms, and sets down a brief cure of them." — Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Tenth Edit. : 8ro. 1804. Vol. I. Page 13, et seq. It is surprising that so learned a writer as Burton should not have alluded to Oriba- sius, who flourished 140 years before A'etius, and of whom Freind says, "In auctore hoc miri cujusdam morbi prima mentio est ; is A vKavQpwnoc, sive AvtcavGpujTria dicitur, estque melancholiae, aut insania?, species quamam ita ab illo descripta : * Quos hoc ma- lum infestos habet, nocturno tempore domo egressi, Lupos in omnibus rebus imitantur, et ad diem usque circa tumulos vagantur mortuorum. Hos ita cognosce : pallidi sunt, oculos hebetes et siccos, non illachrymantes, eosque concavos habent : lingua siccissima est, nulla penitus in ore saliva conspicitur, siti euecti ; crura vero, quia noctu srcpe of- fendunt, sine remedio exulcerata.'— 'Quod ad morbum ipsum attinet, si peregrinantibus fides adhibenda est, fuit olim in quibusdam regionibus, ut in Livonia, Hibernia, et aliis locis visi non infrequens,' " &c— J. Freind. Opera omnia Med. fol. London. 1733. De hujus morbi antiquitatibus vide elegantem Bbttigeri disputationem in Sprengelii Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Med. 11. p. 1—45.— Blancard. Lexic. Med. Edit, noviss. 8vo. Lipsise, 1832. — Transl. note. 102 THE DANCING MANIA. dance, and, by a comparison of facts, which are altogether similar, affording us an instructive subject for contemplation. We allude to the disease called Tarantism, which made its first appearance in Apulia, and thence spread over the other provinces of Italy, where, during some centuries, it prevailed as a great epidemic. In the present times it has vanished, or at least has lost altogether its original importance, like the St. Vitus's dance, lycanthropy, and witchcraft. Sect. 2. — Most ancient Traces. — Causes. The learned Nicholas Perotti 1 gives the earliest account of this strange disorder. Nobody had the least doubt that it was caused by the bite of the tarantula?* a ground-spider common in Apulia ; and the fear of this insect was so general, that its bite was in all probability much oftener imagined, or the sting of some other kind of insect mistaken for it, than actually received. The word tarantula is apparently the same as terrantola, a name given by the Italians to the stellio of the old Romans, which was a kind of lizard, 4 said to be poisonous, and invested by credulity with such extraordinary qualities, that, like the serpent of the Mosaic ac- count of the Creation, it personified, in the imaginations of the vul- gar, the notion of cunning, so that even the jurists designated a 1 Born 1430, died 1480. Cornucopiae latiuce linguae. Basil. 1536. fol. Comment, in primuni Martialis Epigramma, p. 51, 52. " Est et alius stellio ex araneorum genere, qui, simili modo, ascalabotes a Grjecis dieitur, et eolotes et galeotes, lentiginosus in cavernulis dehiscentibus, per aestum terra; habitans. Ilic majorum nostrorum tem- poribus in Italia visus non fuit, nunc frequens in Apulia visitur. Aliquando etiam in Tarquinensi et Corniculano agro, et vulgo similiter tarantula vocatur. Morsus ejus per- raro interemit bominem, semistupidum tamen facit, et varie afficit, tarantulam vulgo appellant. Quidam cantu audit o, aut sono, ita excitantur, ut pleni Itrtitia et semper ridentes saltetit, nee nisi defatigati et semineces desistant. Alii semper flcntes, quasi desiderio suorum miserabilem vitam agant. Alii visa muliere, libidinis statim ardore incensi, veluti furentes in earn prosiliant. Quidam ridendo, quidam flendo moriantur." * Lycosa Tarantula. 3 Tbe Aranea Tarantula of Linnceits, who, after the technical description, says, " Habitat in Europa australi, potissimum Apulia, in Barbaria, in Tauria, Bussheque australis desertis, in Astracania ad montes Sibiriae Altaicos usque, in Persia et reliquo Orientc, in solo praesertim argillaceo in antris, morsu quamvis interdum dolente, olimque famosum tarantismum musica sanandum excitare credito, vix unquam periculoso, cine- rascens, oralis duobus prioribus rubris, thorace in areas nigras diviso in centrum concur- rentes, abdomine supra fasciis maxillisque nigris." — Systema Natures. Tom. I. pars v. p. 2956. For particulars regarding the habits of the Lycosrc, see Griffith's Transl. of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom. Vol. XIII. p. 427 and p. 480. et seq. The author states that M. Chabrier has published (Soc. Acad, de Lille 4 e cahier) some curious observations on the Lycosa tarantula of the south of France. — Transl. note. 1 Matthiol. Commcntar. in Dioscorid. L. II. ch. 59. p. 363. Ed. Venet. 1565. fol. MOST ANCIENT TRACES. — CAUSES. 103 cunning fraud by the .appellation of a " stellionatus." 1 Perotti expressly assures us that this reptile was called by the Romans tarantula; and since he himself, who was one of the most distin- guished authors of his time, strangely confounds spiders and lizards together, so that he considers the Apulian tarantula, which he ranks among the class of spiders, to have the same meaning as the kind of lizard called a'cFTt]<;, 5. aicXripoictyaXov, and 6. OKioXqiciov. Tetrabl. IV. Serm. I. ch. 18. in Hen. Steph. Compare Dioscorid. Lib. VI. ch. 42. Mutthiol. Commentar. in Dios- eorid. p. 1417. Xicand. Theriac. Y. 8. 715. 755. G54. MOST ANCIENT TRACES. — CAUSES. 105 tenance, difficulty of speech, tremor of the limbs, icy coldness, pale urine, depression of spirits, head-ache, a flow of tears, nausea, vomiting, sexual excitement, flatulence, syncope, dysuria, watch- fulness, lethargy, even death itself, were cited by them as the con- sequences of being bitten by venomous spiders, and they made little distinction as to their kinds. To these symptoms we may add the strange rumour, repeated throughout the middle ages, that persons who were bitten, ejected by the bowels and kidneys, and even by vomiting, substances resembling a spider's web. Nowhere, however, do we find any mention made that those affected felt an irresistible propensity to dancing, or that they were accidentally cured by it. Even Constantine of Africa, who lived 500 years after Aetius, and as the most learned physician of the school of Salerno, would certainly not have passed over so acceptable a subject of remark, knows nothing of such a memor- able course of this disease arising from poison, and merely repeats the observations of his Greek predecessors. 1 Gariopontus, 2 a Salernian physician of the eleventh century, was the first to de- scribe a kind of insanity, the remote affinity of which to the tarantula disease is rendered apparent by a very striking symptom. The patients in their sudden attacks behaved like maniacs,, sprang up, throwing their arms about with wild movements, and, if per- chance a sword was at hand, thev wounded themselves and others, so that it became necessary carefully to secure them. They imagined that they heard voices, and various kinds of sounds, and if, during this state of illusion, the tones of a favourite instru- ment happened to catch their ear, they commenced a spasmodic dance, or ran with the utmost energy which they could muster, until they were totally exhausted. These dangerous maniacs, who, it would seem, appeared in considerable numbers, were looked upon as a legion of devils, but on the causes of their malady this obscure writer adds nothing further than that he believes (oddly enough) that it may sometimes be excited by the bite of a mad dog. He calls the disease Anteneasmus, by which is meant 1 Aranearum multa? species sunt. Qua; ubi mordent, faciunt multum dolorem, ruborem, frigidum sudorem, et citrinum colorem. Aliquando quasi stranguria; in urina duritiem, et virgse extensionem, intra inguina, et genua, tetinositatem in stomacho. Linguae extensionem, ut eorum scrmo non possit discerni. Vomunt kumiditatem qtiasi arancce tclam, ot ventris emollitioncm similiter, &c. De conimunibus medico cognitu necessariis locis. Lib. VIII. cap. 22. p. 235. Basil. 1539. fol. 2 He lived in tbe middle of the eleventh century, and was a junior contemporary with Constantine of Africa. J. Chr. Gottl. Ackermann, Regimen sanitatis Salerni sive Si hoke Salrnitanse de conservancla bona valetudine pra-cepta. Stcndal. 1790. 8vo. p. £8. 106 THE DANCING MANIA. no doubt the Enthusiasmus of the Greek physicians. 1 We cite this phenomenon as an important forerunner of tarantism, under the conviction that we have thus added to the evidence that the development of this latter must have been founded on circum- stances which existed from the twelfth to the end of the fourteenth century ; for the origin of tarantism itself is referrible, with the utmost probabilit} 7 , to a period between the middle and the end of this century, and is consequently contemporaneous with that of the St. Titus's dance (1374). The influence of the Roman Catholic religion, connected as this was, in the middle ages, with the pomp of processions, with public exercises of penance, and with innu- merable practices which strongly excited the imaginations of its votaries, certainly brought the mind to a very favourable state for the reception of a nervous disorder. Accordingly, so long as the doctrines of Christianity were blended with so much mysticism, these unhallowed disorders prevailed to an important extent, and even in our own days we find them propagated with the greatest facility where the existence of superstition produces the same effect in more limited districts, as it once did among whole nations. But this is not all. Every country in Europe, and Italy perhaps more than any other, was visited during the middle ages by frightful plagues, which followed each other in such quick succession, that they gave the exhausted people scarcely any time for recovery. The oriental bubo-plague ravaged Italy 2 sixteen times between the years 1119 and 1340. Small-pox and measles were still more destructive than in modern times, and recurred as frequently. St. Anthony's fire was the dread of town and country ; and that dis- gusting disease, the leprosy, which, in consequence of the crusades, spread its insinuating poison in all directions, snatched from the 1 The passage is as follows: "Antcneasmon est species mania? periculosa nimium. Irritantur tanquam maniaci, et in se manus injiciunt. Hi subito arripiuntur, cum sal- tat ione manuum et pedum, quia intra aurium cavernas quasi voces diversas sonar ef also audiunt, ut sunt diversorum instrumentation musicee so?ii ; quibus delcctantur, ut statim saltent, aut cursum velocem arripiant ; subito arripientes gladium percutiunt se aut alios: morsibus se et alios attrectare non dubitant. IIos Latini pereussores, alii dicunt daemonis legiones esse, ut dum eos arripiunt, vexent et vulnerent. Diligentia eis im- ponenda est, quando istos sonos audierint, includantur, et post accessionis horas phle- botomentur, et venter eis moveatur. Cibos leves accipiant cum calida aqua, ut omnis ventositas, quae in cerebro sonum facit, egeratur. In ipsaaccessione silentium habeant. Quod si spumam per os ejecerint, vel ex canis rabidi morsu causa fuerit, intra septem dies moriuntur." Garioponti, medici vetustissimi, de morborum causis, accidentibus et curationibus. Libri VIII. Basil. 1536. 8vo. I.. I. ch. 2. p. 27. 2 .7. P. Papon. De la peste, ou les epoques memorable* de ce Mean. Paris, an 8. 8vo. Tome II. page 270. (1119. 1126. 113.1 1193. 1225. 1227. 1231. 1234. 1243. 1254. 1288. 1301. 1311. 1316. 1335. 1340.) MOST ANCIENT TRACES. CAUSES. 107 paternal hearth innumerable victims who, banished from human society, pined away in lonely huts, whither they were accompanied only by the pity of the benevolent and their own despair. All these calamities, of which the moderns have scarcely retained any recollection, were heightened to an incredible degree by the Black Death, 1 which spread boundless devastation and misery over Italy. Men's minds were everywhere morbidly sensitive ; and as it hap- pens with individuals whose senses, when they are suffering under anxiety, become more irritable, so that trifles are magnified into objects of great alarm, and slight shocks, which would scarcely affect the spirits when in health, give rise in them to severe dis- eases, so was it with this whole nation, at all times so alive to emotions, and at that period so sorely pressed with the horrors of death. The bite of venomous spiders, or rather the unreasonable fear of its consequences, excited at such a juncture, though it could not have done so at an earlier period, a violent nervous disorder, which, like St. Vitus's dance in Germany, spread by sympathy, increas- ing in severity as it took a wider range, and still further extend- ing: its ravages from its long continuance. Thus, from the middle of the fourteenth century, the furies of the Dance brandished their scourge over afflicted mortals ; and music, for which the inha- bitants of Italy, now probably for the first time, manifested sus- ceptibility and talent, became capable of exciting ecstatic attacks in those affected, and then furnished the magical means of exor- cising their melancholy. Sect. 3. — Increase. At the close of the fifteenth century we find that Tarantism had spread beyond the boundaries of Apulia, and that the fear of being bitten by venomous spiders had increased. Nothing short of death itself was expected from the wound which these insects in- flicted, and if those who were bitten escaped with their lives, they were said to be seen pining away in a desponding state of lassitude. Many became weak-sighted or hard of hearing, some lost the power of speech, and all were insensible to ordinary causes of excitement. Nothing but the flute or the cithern afforded them relief. 3 At the sound of these instruments they awoke as it were 1 1347 to 1350. • Athanasius Kircher gives a full account of the instruments then in use, which differed very slightly from those of our days. Musurgia universalis, sive Ars m.igna consoni et dissoni. lionise, 1650, fol. Tom. I. p. 477. 108 THE DANCING MANIA. by enchantment, opened their eyes, and moving slowly at first, according to the measure of the music, were, as the time quicken- ed, gradually hurried on to the most passionate dance. It was generally observable that country people, who were rude, and ignorant of music, evinced on these occasions an unusual degree of grace, as if they had been well practised in elegant movements of the body ; for it is a peculiarity in nervous disorders of this kind, that the organs of motion are in an altered condition, and are completely under the control of the overstrained spirits. Cities and villages alike resounded throughout the summer season with the notes of fifes, clarinets, and Turkish drums ; and patients where everywhere to be met with who looked to dancing as their only remedy. Alexander ab Alexandro, 1 who gives this account, saw a young man in a remote village who was seized with a vio- lent attack of Tarantism. He listened with eagerness and a fixed stare to the sound of a drum, and his graceful movements ffradu- ally became more and more violent, until his dancing was convert- ed into a succession of frantic leaps, which required the utmost exertion of his whole strength. In the midst of this overstrained exertion of mind and body the music suddenly ceased, and he im- mediately fell pow r erless to the ground, where he lay senseless and motionless until its magical effect again aroused him to a renewal of his impassioned performances. At the period of which we are treating there was a general con- viction, that by music and dancing the poison of the Tarantula was distributed over the whole body, and expelled through the skin, but that if there remained the slightest vestige of it in the vessels, this became a permanent germ of the disorder, so that the dancing fits might again and again be excited ad infinitum hy music. This belief, which resembled the delusion of those insane persons who, being by artful management freed from the imagined causes of their sufferings, are but for a short time released from their false notions, was attended with the most injurious effects: for in consequence of it those affected necessarily became by de- grees convinced of the incurable nature of their disorder. They expected relief, indeed, but not a cure, from music ; and when the heat of summer awakened a recollection of the dancers of the pre- ceding year, they, like the St. Vitus's dancers of the same period 1 Genialium dierum Libri VI. Lugdun. Bat. 1673. 8vo. Lib. II. eh. 17. p. 398. Alex, ab Alexandro, a distinguished Neapolitan lawyer, lived from 1461 to 1523. The historian Gaudentius Morula, who became celebrated about 1536, makes only a very slight mention of the Tarantism. Memorabilium Gaud. Merulce Novariensis opus, &c. I.ugdun. 1656. 8vo. L. III. ch. 69. p. 251. INCREASE. 109 before St. Vitus's day, again grew dejected and misanthropic, un- til, by music and dancing, they dispelled the melancholy which had become with them a kind of sensual enjoyment. Under such favourable circumstances it is clear that Tarantism must every year have made further progress. The number of those affected by it increased beyond all belief, for whoever had either actually been, or even fancied that he had been, once bitten by a poisonous spider or scorpion, made his appearance annually wherever the merry notes of the Tarantella resounded. Inquisitive females joined the throng and caught the disease, not indeed from the poison of the spider, bat from the mental poison which they eagerly received through the eye ; and thus the cure of the Ta- rantati gradually became established as a regular festival of the populace, which was anticipated with impatient delight. Without attributing more to deception and fraud than to the peculiar nature of a progressive mental malady, it may readily be conceived that the cases of this strange disorder now grew more frequent. The celebrated Matthioli, 1 who is worthy of entire con- fidence, gives his account as an eye-witness. He saw the same extraordinary effects produced by music as Alexandro, for, how- ever tortured with pain, however hopeless of relief the patients appeared, as they lay stretched on the couch of sickness, at the very first sounds of those melodies which had made an impression on them — but this was the case only with the Tarantellas com- posed expressly for the purpose — they sprang up as if inspired with new life and spirit, and, unmindful of their disorder, began to move in measured gestures, dancing for hours together without fatigue, until, covered with a kindly perspiration, they felt a salu- tary degree of lassitude, which relieved them for a time at least, perhaps even for a whole year, from their dejection and oppressive feeling of general indisposition. Alexandre's experience of the injurious effects resulting from a sudden cessation of the music was generally confirmed by Matthioli. If the clarinets and drums ceased for a single moment, which, as the most skilful players were tired out by the patients, could not but happen occasionally, they suffered their limbs to fall listless, again sank exhausted to the ground, and could find no solace but in a renewal of the dance. On this account care was taken to continue the music until ex- haustion was produced ; for it was better to pay a few extra musicians, who might relieve each other, than to permit the pa- 1 Petr. And. Matthioli Ommenlarii in Dioscorid. Vrnct. 1565. fbl. Lib. II. ch. 57. p. 362. 110 THE DANCING MANIA. tient, in the midst of this curative exercise, to relapse into so de- plorable a state of suffering. The attack consequent upon the bite of the Tarantula, Matthioli describes as varying much in its man- ner. Some became morbidly exhilarated, so that they remained for a long while without sleep, laughing, dancing, and singing in a state of the greatest excitement. Others, on the contrary, were drowsy. The generality felt nausea and suffered from vomiting, and some had constant tremors. Complete mania was no uncom- mon occurrence, not to mention the usual dejection of spirits and other subordinate symptoms. Sect. 4. — Idiosyncracies. — Music. Unaccountable emotions, strange desires, and morbid sensual irritations of all kinds, were as prevalent as in the St. Vitus's dance and similar great nervous maladies. So late as the sixteenth century patients were seen armed with glittering swords which, during the attack, they brandished with wild gestures, as if they were going to engage in a fencing match. 1 Even women scorned all female delicacy 2 and, adopting this impassioned demeanour, did the same ; and this phenomenon, as well as the excitement which the Tarantula dancers felt at the sight of anything with metallic lustre, was quite common up to the period when, in mo- dern times, the disease disappeared. 3 The abhorrence of certain colours and the agreeable sensations produced by others, were much more marked among the excitable Italians than was the case in the St. Vitus's dance with the more phlegmatic Germans. Red colours, which the St. Vitus's dancers detested, they generally liked, so that a patient was seldom seen who did not carry a red handkerchief for his gratification, or greedily feast his eyes on any articles of red clothing worn by the by-standers. Some preferred yellow, others black colours, of which an explanation was sought, according to the prevailing no- tions of the times, in the difference of temperaments. 4 Others 1 Athanas. Kircher. Magnes sivc de Arte niagnetica Opus. Rom. 1654. fol. p. 5S9. 2 Joann. Juvenis de antiquitate et varia Tarentinorum fortuim Lib. VIII. Neapnl. 1589. fol. Lib. II. cb. 17. p. 107. With the exception of the statement quoted, Juvenis has borrowed almost everything from Matthioli. 3 Simon. Alloys. Tudecius, physician to Queen Christine, saw a case of this kind in July, 1656. Bonet. Medicina septentrionalis collatit. Genev. 1684. fol. 4 Epiphan. Ferdinand. Centum historian seu observations et casus medici. Venet. 1621. fol. Hist. LXXXI. p. 259. Ferdinando, a physician in Messapia at the com- mencement of the seventeenth century, has collected, with much diligence, the various stntpments respecting the Tarantism of his time. He " was himself an eye-witness of it " (p. 265), and is by far the most copious of all the old writers on this subject. IDIOSYNCRACIES. — MUSIC. 1 1 1 again were enraptured with green ; and eye-witnesses describe this rage for colours as so extraordinary, that they can scarcely find words with which to express their astonishment. No sooner did the patients obtain a sight of the favourite colour than, new as the impression was, they rushed like infuriated animals towards the object, devoured it with their eager looks, kissed and caressed it in every possible way, and gradually resigning themselves to softer sensations, adopted the languishing expression of enamoured lovers, and embraced the handkerchief, or whatever other article it might be, which was presented to them, with the most intense ardour, while the tears streamed from their eyes as if they were com- pletely overwhelmed by the inebriating impression on their senses. The dancing fits of a certain Capuchin friar in Tarentum ex- cited so much curiosity, that Cardinal Cajetano proceeded to the monastery, that he might see with his own eyes what was going on. As soon as the monk, who was in the midst of his dance, per- ceived the spiritual prince clothed in his red garments, he no longer listened to the Tarantella of the musicians, but with strange gestures endeavoured to approach the Cardinal, as if he wished to count the very threads of his scarlet robe, and to allay his intense longing by its odour. The interference of the spectators, and his own respect, prevented his touching it, and thus the irritation of his senses not being appeased, he fell into a state of such anguish and disquietude, that he presently sank down in a swoon, from which he did not recover until the Cardinal compassionately gave him his cape. This he immediately seized in the greatest ecstasy, and pressed now to his breast, now to his forehead and cheeks, and then again commenced his dance as if in the frenzv of a love fit. 1 At the sight of colours which they disliked, patients flew into the most violent rage, and, like the St. Vitus's dancers when they saw red objects, could scarcely be restrained from tearing the clothes of those spectators who raised in them such disagreeable sensations. 2 Another no less extraordinary symptom was the ardent longing for the sea which the patients evinced. As the St. John's dancers of the fourteenth century saw, in the spirit, the heavens open and display all the splendour of the saints, so did those who were suffering under the bite of the Tarantula feel themselves attracted to the boundless expanse of the blue ocean, and lost themselves in its contemplation. Some songs, which are still preserved, ' Kircher, l<>e. cit. pp. -588. .589. * Ferdinand, p. 259. 112 THE DANCING MANIA. marked this peculiar longing, which was moreover expressed by significant music, and was excited even by the bare mention of the sea. 1 Some, in whom this susceptibility was carried to the greatest pitch, cast themselves with blind fury into the blue waves, 2 as the St. Vitus's dancers occasionally did into rapid rivers. This condition, so opposite to the frightful state of hydrophobia, betrayed itself in others only in the pleasure afforded them by the sight of clear water in glasses. These they bore in their hands while dancing, exhibiting at the same time strange movements, and giving way to the most extravagant expressions of their feel- ings. They delighted also when, in the midst of the space allot- ted for this exercise, more ample vessels, filled with water, and surrounded by rushes and water plants, were placed, in which they bathed their heads and arms with evident pleasure. 3 Others there were who rolled about on the ground, and were, by their own desire, buried up to the neck in the earth, in order to allevi- ate the misery of their condition, not to mention an endless variety of other symptoms which showed the perverted action of the nerves. All these modes of relief, however, were as nothing in compari- son with the irresistible charms of musical sound. Attempts had indeed been made in ancient times to mitigate the pain of sciatica, 4 or the paroxysms of mania, 5 by the soft melody of the flute, and, what is still more applicable to the present purpose, to remove the danger arising from the bite of vipers 6 by the same means. This, however, was tried only to a very small extent. But after being bitten by the Tarantula, there was, according to popular opinion, no way of saving life except by music, and it was hardly considered as an exception to the general rule, that every now and then the bad effects of a wound were prevented by placing a 1 For example : — " Allu mari mi portati Se voleti che mi sanati. Allu mari, alia via : Cosi m'ama la donna mia. Allu mari allu mari : Mcntre campo, t'a^gio amari." Kircher, loc. cit. p. 592. — Appendix, No. V. 2 Ferdinand, loc. cit. p. 257. 3 Kircher, p. 589. * Plin. Hist. Nat. Lib. XXVIII. cb. 2. p. 447. Ed. Hard. 5 Cael. Aurelian. Chron. Lib. I. ch. 5. p. 335. Ed. Amman. 6 Democritus and Theophrastus made mention of it. See Gell. Noct. Attic. Lib. IV. cb. 13. IDIOSYNCRACIES. — MUSIC. 113 ligature on the bitten limb, or by internal medicine, or that strong persons occasionally withstood the effects of the poison, without the employment of any remedies at all. 1 It was much more com- mon, and is quite in accordance with the nature of so exquisite a nervous disease, to hear accounts of many who, when bitten by the Tarantula, perished miserably because the Tarantella, which would have afforded them deliverance, was not played to them. 2 It was customary, therefore, so early as the commencement of the seven- teenth century, for whole bands of musicians to traverse Italy during the summer months, and, what is quite unexampled either in ancient or modern times, the cure of the Tarantati in the different towns and villages was undertaken on a grand scale. This season of dancing and music was called Cl the women's little car- nival," 3 for it was women more especially who conducted the arrangements ; so that throughout the whole country they saved up their spare money, for the purpose of rewarding the welcome musicians, and many of them neglected their household employ- ments to participate in this festival of the sick. Mention is even made of one benevolent lady (Mita Lupa) who had expended her whole fortune on this object. 4 The music itself was of a kind perfectly adapted to the nature of the malady, and it made so deep an impression on the Italians, that even to the present time, long since the extinction of the disorder, they have retained the Tarantella, as a particular species of music employed for quick lively dancing. The different kinds of Tarantella were distinguished, very significantly, by particular names, which had reference to the moods observed in the patients. Whence it appears that they aimed at representing by these tunes, even the idiosyncracies of the mind as expressed in the counte- nance. Thus there was one kind of Tarantella which was called "Panno rosso," a very lively impassioned style of music, to which wild dithyrambic songs were adapted; another, called "Panno verde," which was suited to the milder excitement of the senses, caused by green colours, and set to Idyllian songs of verdant fields and shady groves. A third was named " Cinque tempi : " a fourth "Moresca," which was played to a Moorish dance; a fifth, "Catena?" and a sixth, with a very appropriate designation, " Spallata," as if it were only fit to be played to dancers who were lame in 1 Ferdinand, p. 260. 2 Bagliv. loc. cit. p. 618. From more decided statements, however, we learn, that of those who had been bitten only one or two in a thousand died. Ferdinand, p. 255. 3 II carnevaletto delle donne. Bagliv. p. 617. 4 Ferdinand, pp. 254. 260. 114 THE DANCING MANIA. tho shoulder. This was the slowest and least in vogue of all. 1 For those who loved water they took care to select love songs, which were sung to corresponding music, and such persons de- lighted in hearing of gushing springs and rushing cascades and streams. 2 It is to be regretted that on this subject we are unable to give any further information, for only small fragments of songs, and a very few Tarantellas, have been preserved which belong to a period so remote as the beginning of the seventeenth, or at furthest the end of the sixteenth, centurv. 3 The music was almost wholly in the Turkish style (aria Tur- chesca), and the ancient songs of the peasantry of Apulia, which increased in number annually, were well suited to the abrupt and lively notes of the Turkish drum and the shepherd's pipe. These two instruments were the favourites in the country, but others of all kinds were played in towns and villages, as an accompaniment to the dances of the patients and the songs of the spectators. If any particular melody was disliked by those affected, they indi- cated their displeasure by violent gestures expressive of aversion. They could not endure false notes, and it is remarkable that un- educated boors, who had never in their lives manifested any per- ception of the enchanting power of harmony, acquired, in this re- spect, an extremely refined sense of hearing, as if they had been initiated into the profoundest secrets of the musical art. 4 It was a matter of every day's experience, that patients showed a predi- lection for certain Tarantellas, in preference to others, which gave rise to the composition of a great variety of these dances. They were likewise very capricious in their partialities for particular instruments ; so that some longed for the shrill notes of the trum- pet, others for the softest music produced by the vibration of strings. 5 Tarantism was at its greatest height in Italy in the seventeenth century, long after the St. Yitus's Dance of Germany had dis- appeared. Is was not the natives of the country only who were attacked by this complaint. Foreigners of every colour and of every race, negroes, gipsies, Spaniards, Albanians, were in like manner affected by it. 6 Against the effects produced by the Tarantula's bite, or by the sight of the sufferers, neither youth nor age afforded 1 Ferdinand, p. 259. Slow music made the Tarantel dancers feel as if they were crushed: spczzati, minuzzati, p. 260. 2 A. Kircher, loc. cit. 3 g ec Appendix, No. V. 4 Bagliv. loc. cit. p. 623. ' A. Kircher, loc. cit. * Ferdinand, p, 262. IDIOSYNCRASIES. — MUSIC. 1 1 5 any protection ; so that even old men of ninety threw aside their crutches at the sound of the Tarantella, and, as if some magic potion, restorative of youth and vigour, were flowing through their veins, joined the most extravagant dancers. 1 Ferdinando saw a boy five years old seized with the dancing mania, 2 in conse- quence of the bite of a tarantula ; and, what is almost past belief, were it not supported by the testimony of so credible an eye-wit- ness, even deaf people were not exempt from this disorder, so potent in its effect was the very sight of those affected, even without the exhilarating emotions caused by music. 3 Subordinate nervous attacks were much more frequent during this century than at any former period, and an extraordinary icy coldness was observed in those who were the subjects of them ; so that they did not recover their natural heat until they had engaged in violent dancing. 4 Their anguish and sense of oppression forced from them a cold perspiration ; the secretion from the kidneys was pale, 5 and they had so great a dislike to everything cold, that when water was offered them they pushed it away with abhorrence. Wine, on the contrary, they all drank willingly, without being heated bv it, or in the slightest decree intoxicated. 6 During the whole period of the attack they suffered from spasms in the stomach, and felt a disinclination to take food of any kind. They used to abstain some time before the expected seizures from meat and from snails, which they thought rendered them more severe, 7 and their great thirst for wine may, therefore, in some measure, be attributable to the want of a more nutritious diet ; yet the dis- order of the nerves was evidently its chief cause, and the loss of appetite, as well as the necessity for support by wine, were its effects. Loss of voice, occasional blindness, 8 vertigo, complete insanity, with sleeplessness, frequent weeping without any osten- sible cause, were all usual symptoms. Many patients found relief from being placed in swings or rocked in cradles ;° others re- quired to be roused from their state of suffering by severe blows on the soles of their feet ; others beat themselves, without any in- tention of making a display, but solely for the purpose of allaying the intense nervous irritation which they felt ; and a considerable number were seen with their bellies swollen, 10 like those of the St. 1 This is said of an old man of Avctrano, who was ninety-font years of age. pp. 254. 257. 2 Idem, p. 261. * Ferdinando saw a man who was hard of hearing listen with great eagerness during the dance, and endeavour to approach the drums and fifes as nearly as possible. P. 258. 1 Idem, p. 260. 5 Idem, p. 25G. « Idem, p. 260. 7 Idem, p. 261. a Idem, p. 256. 9 Idem, p. 258. lft Idem, p. 257. 8* 116 THE DANCING MANIA. John's dancers, while the violence of the intestinal disorder was indicated in others by obstinate constipation or diarrhoea and vomiting. 1 These pitiable objects gradually lost their strength and their colour, and creeping about with injected eyes, jaundiced complexions, and inflated bowels, soon fell into a state of profound melancholy, which found food and solace in the solemn tolling of the funeral bell, and in an abode among the tombs of cemeteries, as is related of the Lycanth ropes of former times. The persuasion of the inevitable consequences of being bitten by the tarantula, exercised a dominion over men's minds which even the healthiest and strongest could not shake off. So late as the middle of the sixteenth century, the celebrated Fracastoro found the robust bailiff of his landed estate groaning, and, with the aspect of a person in the extremity of despair, suffering the very agonies of death, from a sting in the neck, inflicted by an insect which was believed to be a tarantula. He kindly administered, without delay, a potion of vinegar and Armenian bole, the great remedy of those days for the plague and all kinds of animal poisons, and the dying man was, as if by a miracle, restored to life and the power of speech. 2 Now, since it is quite out of the question that the bole could have anything to do with the result in this case, notwithstanding Fracastoro's belief in its virtues, we can only account for the cure by supposing, that a confidence in so great a physician prevailed over this fatal disease of the imagination, which would otherwise have yielded to scarcely any other remedy except the tarantella. Ferdinando was acquainted with women who, for thirty years in succession, had overcome the attacks of this disorder by a renewal of their annual dance — so long did they maintain their belief in the yet undestroyed poison of the taran- tula's bite, and so long did that mental affection continue to exist, after it had ceased to depend on any corporeal excitement. 3 Wherever we turn we find that this morbid state of mind pre- vailed, and was so supported by the opinions of the age, that it needed only a stimulus in the bite of the tarantula, and the sup- posed certainty of its very disastrous consequences, to originate this violent nervous disorder. Even in Ferdinando's time there were many who altogether denied the poisonous effects of the tarantula's bite, whilst they considered the disorder, which annually set Italy in commotion, to be a melancholy depending on the 1 Ferdinand, p. 2.36. 2 De Contag. Lib. III. ch. 2, p. 212. Opera Lugdun. 1591. 8vo. 3 De Contag. p. 254. HYSTERIA. 117 imagination. 1 They dearly expiated this scepticism, however, when they were led, with an inconsiderate hardihood, to test their opinions by experiment; for many of them became the subjects of severe tarantism, and even a distinguished prelate, Jo. Baptist Quinzato, Bishop of Foligno, having allowed himself, by way of a joke, to be bitten by a tarantula, could obtain a cure in no other way than by being, through the influence of the tarantella, com- pelled to dance. 2 Others among the clergy, who wished to shut their ears against music, because they considered dancing deroga- tory to their station, fell into a dangerous state of illness by thus delaying the crisis of the malady, and were obliged at last to save themselves from a miserable death by submitting to the unwel- come but sole means of cure. 3 Thus it appears that the age was so little favourable to freedom of thought, that even the most de- cided sceptics, incapable of guarding themselves against the re- collection of what had been presented to the eye, were subdued by a poison, the power of which they had ridiculed, and which was in itself inert in its effect. Sect. 5. — Hysteria. Different characteristics of morbidly excited vitality having been rendered prominent by tarantism in different individuals, it could not but happen that other derangements of the nerves would assume the form of this, whenever circumstances favoured such a transition. This was more especially the case with hysteria, that proteiform and mutable disorder, in which the imaginations, the superstitions, and the follies of all ages have been evidently reflect- ed. The " Carnevaletto delle Donne" appeared most opportunely for those who were hysterical. Their disease received from it, as it had at other times from other extraordinary customs, a peculiar direction ; so that whether bitten by the tarantula or not, they felt- compelled to participate in the dances of those affected, and to make their appearance at this popular festival, where they had an opportunity of triumphantly exhibiting their sufferings. Let us here pause to consider the kind of life which the women in Italy led. Lonely, and deprived by cruel custom of social intercourse, that fairest of all enjoyments, they dragged on a miserable exist- ence. Cheerfulness and an inclination to sensual pleasures passed into compulsory idleness, and, in many, into black despondency. 4 1 Dc Contag. p. 254. 2 Idem, p. 262. 3 Idem, p. 261. 4 " The imaginations of women are always more excitable than those of men, and 118 THE DANCING MANIA. Their imaginations became disordered — a pallid countenance and oppressed respiration bore testimony to their profound sufferings. How could they do otherwise, sunk as they were in such extreme misery, than seize the occasion to burst forth from their prisons, and alleviate their miseries by taking part in the delights of music. Nor should we here pass unnoticed a circumstance which illustrates, in a remarkable degree, the psychological nature of hysterical sufferings, namel} r , that many chlorotic females, by join- ing the dancers at the Carnevaletto, were freed from their spasms and oppression of breathing for the whole year, although the cor- poreal cause of their malady was not removed. 1 After such a re- sult, no one could call their self-deception a mere imposture, and unconditionally condemn it as such. This numerous class of patients certainly contributed not a little to the maintenance of the evil, for their fantastic sufferings, in which dissimulation and reality could scarcely be distinguished even by themselves, much less by their physicians, were imitated, in the same way as the distortions of the St. Vitus's dancers, by the impostors of that period. It was certainly by these persons also that the number of subordinate symptoms was increased to an endless extent, as may be conceived from the daily observation of hysterical patients, who, from a morbid desire to render themselves remarkable, deviate from the laws of moral propriety. Powerful sexual excitement had often the most decided influence over their they are therefore susceptible of every folly when they lead a life of strict seclusion, and their thoughts are constantly turned inwards upon themselves. Hence in orphan asylums, hospitals, and convents, the nervous disorder of one female so easily and quick- ly becomes the disorder of all. I have read in a good medical work that a nun, in a very large convent in France, began to mew like a cat ; shortly afterwards other nuns also mewed. At last all the nuns mewed together every day at a certain time for several hours together. The whole surrounding Christian neighbourhood heard, with equal chagrin and astonishment, this daily cat-concert, which did not cease until all the nuns were informed that a company of soldiers were placed by the police before the en- trance of the convent, and that they were provided with rods, and would continue whipping them until they promised not to mew any more. " But of all the epidemics of females which I myself have seen in Germany, or of which the history is known to me, the most remarkable is the celebrated Convent- epidemic of the fifteenth century, which Cardan describes, and which peculiarly proves what I would here enforce. A nun in a German nunnery fell to biting all her com- panions. In the course of a short time all the nuns of this convent began biting each other. The news of this infatuation among the nuns soon spread, and it now passed from convent to convent throughout a great part of Germany, principally Saxony and Brandenburg. It afterwards visited the nunneries of Holland, and at last the nuns had the biting mania even as far as Konie." — Zimmermann on Solitude, Vol. II. Leipsig. 1784. — Transl. note. 1 Georg. Baglivi, Diss, de Anatome, morsu et effectibus Tarantula?, pp. G16, 617. Opp. Lugdun. 1710. 4t>. HYSTERIA. 119 condition. Many of them exposed themselves in the most inde- cent manner, tore their hair out by the roots, with howling and gnashing of their teeth ; and when, as was sometimes the case, their unsatisfied passion hurried them on to a state of frenzy, they closed their existence by self-destruction ; it being common at that time for these unfortunate beings to precipitate themselves into the wells. 1 It might hence seem that, owing to the conduct of patients of this description, so much of fraud and falsehood would be mixed up with the original disorder, that having passed into another complaint, it must have been itself destroyed. This, however, did not happen in the first half of the seventeenth century ; for as a clear proof that Tarantism remained substantially the same and quite unaffected by Hysteria, there were in many places, and in particular at Messapia, fewer women affected than men, who in their turn were, in no small proportion, led into temptation by sexual excitement. 2 In other places, as for example at Brindisi, the case was reversed, which may, as in other complaints, be in some measure attributable to local causes. Upon the whole it ap- pears, from concurrent accounts, that women by no means enjoy- ed the distinction of being attacked by Tarantism more frequently than men. It is said that the cicatrix of the tarantula bite, on the yearly or half-yearly return of the fit, became discoloured, 3 but on this point the distinct testimony of good observers is wanting to de- prive the assertion of its utter improbability. It is not out of place to remark here, that about the same time that Tarantism attained its greatest height in Italy, the bite of venomous spiders was more feared in distant parts of Asia, like- wise, than it had ever been within the memory of man. There was this difference, however, that the symptoms supervening on the occurrence of this accident were not accompanied by the Apulian nervous disorder, which, as has been shown in the fore- going pages, had its origin rather in the melancholic temperament of the inhabitants of the south of Italy, than in the nature of the tarantula poison itself. This poison is therefore doubtless to be considered only as a remote cause of the complaint, which, but for that temperament, would be inadequate to its production. The Persians employed a very rough means of counteracting the bad consequences of a poison of this sort. They drenched the wound- 1 Ferdinando, p. 257. 2 Hem, pp. 25G, 257, 258. " 3 Idem, p. 258. 120 THE DANCING MANIA. ed person with milk, and then, by violent rotatory motion in a suspended box, compelled him to vomit. 1 Sect. 6. — Decrease. The Dancing Mania, arising from the tarantula bite, continued, with all those additions of self-deception, and of the dissimulation which is such a constant attendant on nervous disorders of this kind, through the whole course of the seventeenth century. It was indeed gradually on the decline, but up to the termination of this period, showed such extraordinary symptoms, that Baglivi, one of the best physicians of that time, thought he did a service to science by making them the subject of a dissertation. 2 He repeats all the observations of Ferdinando, and supports his own asser- tions by the experience of his father, a physician at Lecce, whose testimony, as an eye-witness, may be admitted as unexceptionable. The immediate consequence of the tarantula bite, the super- vening nervous disorder, and the aberrations and fits of those who suffered from Hysteria, he describee in a masterly style, nor does he ever suffer his credulity to diminish the authenticity of his account, of which he has been unjustly accused by later writers. Finally, Tarantism has declined more and more in modern times, and is now limited to single cases. How could it possibly have maintained itself unchanged in the eighteenth century, when all the links which connected it with the middle ages had long since been snapped asunder ? Imposture 4 grew more frequent, 1 Adam Olearius. Vermehrte Moscowitische und Pcrsianisehe Reisebeschreibung. Travels in Muscovy and Persia. Schleswig, 1663. fol. Book IV. p. 496. - Georg. Baglivi, Dissertatio VI. de Anatome, morsu et effectibus Tarantulse (written in 1595). Opera omnia, Lugdun. 1710. 4to. p. 599. 3 Tins physician once saw three patients, who were evidently suffering from a malig- nant fever, and whose illness was attributed by the by-standers to the bite of the taran- tula, forced to dance by having music played to them. One of them died on the spot, and the two others very shortly after. Ch. 7. p. 616. 4 Among the instances in which imposture successfully taxes popular credulity, per- haps there is none more remarkable at the present day than that afforded by the Psylli of Egypt, a country which furnishes another illustration of our author's remark at the commencement of the next chapter. This sect, according to the testimony of modern writers, continues to exhibit the same strange spectacles as the ancient serpent-eaters of Cyrene, described by Strabo, 17 Dio. 51. c. 14. Lucan, 9. v. 894. 937. Herodot. 4. c. 173. Paus. 9. c. 28. Savary states that he witnessed a procession.- at Rosetta, where a band of these seeming madmen, with bare arms and wild demeanour, held enormous serpents in their hands which writhed round their bodies and endeavoured to make their escape. These Psylli, grasping them by the neck, tore them with their teeth and ate them up alive, the blood streaming down from their polluted mouths. Others of the DECREASE. 121 and wherever the disease still appeared in its genuine form, its chief cause, namely, a peculiar cast of melancholy, which formerly had been the temperament of thousands, was now possessed only occasionally by unfortunate individuals. It might therefore not unreasonably be maintained, that the Tarantism of modern times bears nearly the same relation to the original malady, as the St. Vitus's dance which still exists, and certainly has all along exist- ed, bears in certain cases to the original dancing mania of the dancers of St. John. To conclude. Tarantism, as a real disease, has been denied in toto, and stigmatized as an imposition, by most physicians and naturalists, who in this controversy have shown the narrowness of their views and their utter ignorance of history. In order to support their opinion they have instituted some experiments, apparently favourable to it, but under circumstances altogether Psylli were striving to wrest their prey from them, so that it seemed a struggle among them who should devour a serpent. The populace followed them with amazement, and believed their performances to be miraculous. Accordingly they pass for persons inspired, and possessed by a spirit who destroys the effect of the serpent. Sonnini, though not so fortunate as to witness a public exhibition of such perform- ances, yet gives the following interesting account of what he justly calls a remarkable specimen of the extravagance of man. After adverting to the superstitious origin of the sect, he goes on to say that a Saadi, or serpent-eater, came to his apartment accom- panied by a priest of his sect. The priest carried in his bosom a large serpent of a dusky green and copper colour, which he was continually handling ; and after having recited a prayer, he delivered it to the Saadi. The narrative proceeds: — "With a vigorous hand the Saadi seized the serpent, which twisted itself round his naked arm. He began to appear agitated ; his countenance was discomposed ; his eyes rolled ; he uttered terrible cries, bit the animal in the head, and tore off a morsel, which we saw him chew and swallow. On this his agitation became convulsive ; his howlings were redoubled, his limbs writhed, his countenance assumed the features of madness, and his mouth, extended by terrible grimaces, was all in a foam. Every now and then he devoured a fresh morsel of the reptile. Three men endeavoured to hold him, but he dragged them all three round the chamber. His arms were thrown about with violence on all sides, and struck everything within their reach. Eager to avoid him, M. Forncti and I were obliged sometimes to cling to the wall, to let him pass and escape his blows. We could have wished the madman far away. At length the priest took the serpent from him, but his madness and convulsions did not cease immediately ; he bit his hands, and his fury continued. The priest then grasped him in his arms, passed his hand gently down his back, lifted him from the ground, and recited some prayers. By degrees his agitation diminished, and subsided into a state of complete lassitude, in which he remained a few moments. " The Turks who were present at this ridiculous and disgusting ceremony were firmly persuaded of the reality of this religious fury ; and it is very certain that, whether it were reality or imposture, it is impossible to see the transports of rage and madness exhibited in a more striking manner, or have before your eyes a man more calculated to inspire terror." — Hunter's Translation of Sonnini' s Travels, 8vo. 1799.— Transl. note. 122 THE DANCING MANIA. inapplicable, since, for the most part, they selected, as the subjects of them, none but healthy men, who were totally uninfluenced by a belief in this once so dreaded disease. From individual in- stances of fraud and dissimulation, such as are found in connexion with most nervous affections without rendering their reality a matter of any doubt, they drew a too hasty conclusion respecting the general phenomenon, of which they appeared not to know that it had continued for nearly four hundred years, having originated in the remotest periods of the middle ages. The most learned and the most acute among these sceptics is Serao the Neapolitan. 1 His reasonings amount to this, that he considers the disease to be a very marked form of melancholia, and compares the effect of the tarantula bite upon it to stimulating, with spurs, a horse which is already running. The reality of that effect he thus admits, and therefore directly confirms what in appearance only he denies. 2 By shaking the already vacillating belief in this disorder he is said to have actually succeeded in rendering it less frequent, and in setting bounds to imposture ; 3 but this no more disproves the re- ality of its existence, than the oft-repeated detection of imposition has been able, in modern times, to banish magnetic sleep from the circle of natural phenomena, though such detection has, on its side, rendered more rare the incontestable effects of animal mag- netism. Other physicians and naturalists 4 have delivered their 1 Franc. Serao, della Tarantola o vero Falangio di Puglia. Napol. 1742. — See Thorn. Fasani, De vita, muniis et scriptis Franc. Serai, &c. Commentarius. Neapol. 1784. 8vo. p. 76. et seq. 2 Thorn. Fasarii, De vita, muniis et scriptis Franc. Serai, &c. Commentarius. p. 88- 3 Idem, p. 89. 4 IT. Mercurialis, de Yenenis et Morbis Venenosis (Yenet. 1601. 4to. Lib. II. ch. 6. p. 39), repeats the silly tale, that those who were bitten continued, during their par- oxysm, to be occupied with whatever they had been engaged in at the time they re- ceived the bite, and proves, by a fact which had been communicated to him, that already, in the sixteenth century, they were able to distinguish impostures from those who had been really bitten. H. Cardani, de Subtilitate, Libri XXI. Basil. 1560. 8vo. Lib. IX. p. 635. The baneful effect of the venom of the tarantula was obviated, not so much by music as by the great exertion used in dancing. Compare J. C'ces. Scaliger. Exoteric. Exercitt. Libri XV. de Subtilitate. Francof. 1612. 8vo. Ex. 185. p. 610.— J. M. Fehr Anchora sacra vel Scorzonera. Jen. 1666. 8vo. p. 127. From Alexander ab Alexan- dra, and several later writers. — Stalpart van der Wiel, Observatt. rarior. Lugdun. Bat. 1G87. 8vo. Cent. 1. Obs. C. p. 424. According to Kircher.—Rod. a. Castro, Medicua politicus. Hamburg, 1614. 4to. Lib. IY. ch. 16. p. 275. According to Matthioli. — D. Cirillo, Some account of the Tarantula, Bhilosoph. Trans. Yol. LX. 1770. describes Tarantism as a common imposture. So also does /. A. Unzer, The Physician, Yol. II. pp. 473. 640, vol. III. pp. 466. 526. 528. 529. 530. 533. 553; likewise A. F. Msching, Eigene Gedanken und gcsammelte Nachrichten von der Tarantel, welche zur giinzlichen Yertilgung des Yorurtheils von der Schadlichkeit ihres Bisses, und der Heilung dessel- TIGEETIER. 123 sentiments on Tarantism, but as they have not possessed an en- larged knowledge of its history, their views do not merit parti- cular exposition. It is sufficient for the comprehension of every one, that we have presented the facts freed from all extraneous speculation. CHAPTER III. DANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINIA. Sect. 1. — Tigretier. Both the St. Vitus's dance and Tarantism belonged to the ages in which they appeared. They could not have existed uuder the same latitude at any other epoch, for at no other period were the circumstances which prepared the way for them combined in a similar relation to each other and the mental as well as corporeal temperaments of nations, which depend on causes such as have ben durch Musik, dienlich und hiulanglich sind. Observations and statements respect- ing the Tarantula, Avhich suffice entirely to set aside the prejudice respecting the venom of its bite, as also its cure by music. Berlin, 1772. 8vo. A very shallow criticism. —P. Forest. Observatt. et Curatt. medicinal. Libri 30, 31 et 32. Francof. 1509. fol. Ob. XII. p. 41. diligently compiled from his predecessors. — Phil. Camerar. Opene horarum subcisivarum. Francof. 1658. 4to. Cent. II. cap. 81. p. 317. — R. Mead, a mechanical account of poisons: London, 1747- 8vo. p. 99. contends for the reality of Tarantism M'ith R. Boyle, An essay of the great effects of even languid and unheeded motion, &e. London, 1685. ch.YI. — So also J. F. Cartheuser, Fundamenta pathologic et therapiae. Francof. a. V. 1758. 8vo. Tom. I. p. 334. Th. Willis de morbis con- vulsivis. cap. VII. p. 492. Opp. Lugdun. 1681. 4to. According to Gassendi, Ferdinan- do, Kircher, and others. — L. Valetta, de Phalangio Apulo opusculum. Neapol. 1706. — Thorn. Cornel io (professor at Naples in the middle of the seventeenth century). Letter to J. Dodington concerning some observations made of persons pretending to be stung by Tarantulas. Phil. Transactions, No. 83. p. 4066. 1672. considers Tarantism to be St. Vitus's dance. — Jos. Lanzoni, de Venenis, cap. 57. p. 140. Opp. Lausann. 1738. 4to. Tom. I. mostly from Baglivi.—J. Schenk, a Grqfenberg. Observatt. Mcdicar. Lib. VII. Obs. 122. p. 792. Tom. II. Ed. Francof. 1600. 8vo. was himself an eye-witness. — Wolfg. Senguerd, Tractatus physicus de Tarantula. Lugd. Bat. 1668. 12mo.— Herm. Grube, De ictu Tarantulas et vi musices in eius curatione conjectural physico-medica;. Francof. 1679. 8vo. — Athan. Kircher, Musurgia universalis. Bom. 1650. fol. Tom. II. IX. ch. 4. p. 218.— M. Kohler, in den Svenska Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar. 1758. p. 29. Transactions of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.— Berlin Collection for the Furtherance of the Science of Medicine. Vol. V. Pt. 1. p. 53. \Ti2.—Burserii Institutiones medic, pract. torn. III. p. 1. cap. 7. § 219. p. 159. ed. ITecker.—J. S. Halle, Gifthistorie. History of Poisons, Berlin, 1786. 8\o.—Blume>ibach, Naturge- schichte, Natural History, p. 412.— E. F. Lconhardt, Diss, de Tarantismo, Berol. 1827. 8vo. and manv others. 124 THE DANCING MANIA. been stated, are as little capable of renewal as the different stages of life in individuals. This gives so much the more importance to a disease but cursorily alluded to in the foregoing pages, which exists in Abyssinia, and which nearly resembles the original mania of the St. John's dancers, inasmuch as it exhibits a perfectly simi- lar ecstacy, with the same violent effect on the nerves of motion. It occurs most frequently in the Tigre country, being thence call- ed Tigretier, and is probably the same malady which is called in the ./Ethiopian language Astariigaza. 1 On this subject we will in- troduce the testimony of Nathaniel Pearce, 2 an eye-witness, who resided nine years in Abyssinia. "The Tigretier," says he, "is more common among the women than among the men. It seizes the body as if with a violent fever, and from that turns to a lingering sickness, which reduces the patients to skeletons, and often kills them, if the relations cannot procure the proper remedy. During this sickness their speech is changed to a kind of stuttering, which no one can understand but those afflicted with the same disorder. When the relations find the malady to be the real tigretier, they join together to defray the expenses of curing it ; the first remedy they in general attempt, is to procure the assistance of a learned Dofter, who reads the Gospel of St. John, 3 and drenches the patient with cold water daily for the space of seven days — an application that very often proves fatal. The most effectual cure, though far more expensive than the former, is as follows : — The relations hire, for a certain sum of money, a band of trumpeters, drummers, and fifers, and buy a quantity of liquor ; then all the young men and women of the place assemble at the patient's house, to per- form the following most extraordinary ceremony. " I was once called in by a neighbour to see his wife, a very young woman, who had the misfortune to be afflicted with this disorder ; and the man being an old acquaintance of mine, and always a close comrade in the camp, I went every day when at 1 This may, however, be considered merely as a conjecture, founded upon the fol- lowing passage iii Ludolfs Lexicon vEthiopic. Ed. 2da. Francof. 1699. fol. p. 142. Astaragaza, de vexatione quadam diabolica accipitur. Marc. i. 26. ix. 18. Luc. ix. 39. Graecus hahet OTraparrav, vellicare, discerpcre. Sed /Ethiopes, teste Grcgorio, pro morbo quodam accipiunt, quo quis pcrpetuo pedes agitare et quasi calcitrare cogilur. Fortassis est Saltatio S. Viti, vulgo St. Ycitstanz. 2 The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce, -written by himself, during a resi- dence in Abyssinia, from the year 1810 to 1819. London, 1831. 8vo. Vol. I. ch. ix. p. 290. 3 The Evangelist and St. John the Baptist have been at all times, and among all na- tions, confounded with each other, so that the relation of the latter to one and the same phenomenon in such different ages and climates is very probable. TIGRgTIER. 125 home, to see her, but I could not be of any service to her, though she never refused my medicines. At this time, I could not under- stand a word she said, although she talked very freely, nor could any of her relations understand her. She could not bear the sight of a book or a priest, for at the sight of either, she struggled, and was apparently seized with acute agony, and a flood of tears, like blood mingled with water, would pour down her face from her eyes. She had lain three months in this lingering state, living upon so little that it seemed not enough to keep a human body alive ; at last, her husband agreed to employ the usual remedy, and, after preparing for the maintenance of the band, during the time it would take to effect the cure, he borrowed from all his neighbours their silver ornaments, and loaded her legs, arms, and neck with them. " The evening that the band began to play, I seated myself close by her side as she lay upon the couch, and about two minutes after the trumpets had begun to sound, I observed her should- ers begin to move, and soon afterwards her head and breast, and in less than a quarter of an hour she sat upon her couch. The wild look she had, though sometimes she smiled, made me draw off to a greater distance, being almost alarmed to see one nearly a skeleton move with such strength ; her head, neck, shoulders, hands, and feet, all made a strong motion to the sound of the music, and in this manner she went on by degrees, until she stood up on her legs upon the floor. Afterwards she began to dance, and at times to jump about, and at last, as the music and noise of the singers increased, she often sprang three feet from the ground. When the music slackened, she would appear quite out of temper, but when it became louder, she would smile and be delighted. During this exercise, she never showed the least svmptom of being tired, though the musicians were thoroughly exhausted ; and when they stopped to refresh themselves by drink- ing and resting a little, she would discover signs of discontent. " Next clay, according to the custom in the cure of this dis- order, she was taken into the market-place, where several jars of maize or tsug were set in order by the relations, to give drink to the musicians and dancers. "When the crowd had assembled and the music was ready, she was brought forth and began to dance and throw herself into the maddest postures imaginable, and in this manner she kept on the whole day. Towards evening she began to let fall her silver ornaments from her neck, arms, and legs, one at a time, so that in the course of three hours she was 126 THE DANCJNG MANIA. stripped of every article. A relation continually kept going after her as she danced, to pick up the ornaments, and afterwards delivered them to the owners from whom they were borrowed. As the sun went down, she made a start with such swiftness, that the fastest runner could not come up with her, and when at the distance of about two hundred yards, she dropped on a sudden, as if shot. Soon afterwards, a young man, on coming up with her, fired a matchlock over her body, and struck her upon the back with the broad side of his large knife, and asked her name, to which she answered as when in her common senses — a sure proof of her being cured ; for, during the time of this malady, those afflicted with it never answer to their Christian names. She was now taken up in a very weak condition and carried home, and a priest came and baptized her again in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which ceremony concluded her cure. Some are taken in this manner to the market-place for many days be- fore they can be cured, and it sometimes happens that they can- not be cured at all. I have seen them in these fits dance with a bruly, or bottle of maize, upon their heads, without spilling the liquor, or letting the bottle fall, although they have put them- selves into the most extravagant postures. " I could not have ventured to write this from hearsay, nor could I conceive it possible, until I was obliged to put this remedy in practice upon my own wife, 1 who was seized with the same dis- order, and then I was compelled to have a still nearer view of this strange disorder. I at first thought that a whip would be of some service, and one day attempted a few strokes when unnoticed by any person, we being by ourselves, and I having a strong suspicion that this ailment sprang from the weak minds of women, who were encouraged in it for the sake of the grandeur, rich dress, and music which accompany the cure. But how much was I surprised, the moment I struck a light blow, thinking to do good, to find that she became like a corpse, and even the joints of her fingers became so stiff that I could not straighten them ; indeed, I really thought that she was dead, and immediately made it known to the people in the house that she had fainted, but did not tell them the cause, upon which they immediately brought music, which I had for many days denied them, and which soon revived her ; and I then left the house to her relations to cure her at my expense, in the manner I have before mentioned, though it took a much long- er time to cure my wife than the woman I have just given 1 She was a native Greek. TIGRETIER. 127 an account of. One day I went privately, with a companion, to see my wife dance, and kept a short distance, as I was ashamed to go near the crowd. On looking stedfastly upon her, while dancing or jumping, more like a deer than a human being, I said that it certainly was not my wife ; at which my companion burst into a fit of laughter, from which ho could scarcely refrain all the way home. Men are sometimes afflicted with this dreadful dis- order, but not frequently. Among the Amhara and Galla it is not so common." Such is the account of Pearce, who is every way worthy of credit, and whose lively description renders the traditions of form- er times respecting the St. Yitus's dance and tarantism intelligible, even to those who are sceptical respecting the existence of a mor- bid state of the mind and body of the kind described, because, in the present advanced state of civilization among the nations of Europe, opportunities for its development no longer occur. The credibility of this energetic, but by no means ambitious man, is not liable to the slightest suspicion, for, owing to his want of educa- tion, he had no knowledge of the phenomena in question, and his work evinces throughout his attractive and unpretending im- partiality. Comparison is the mother of observation, and may here eluci- date one phenomenon by another — the past by that which still exists. Oppression, insecurity, and the influence of a veiy rude priestcraft, are the powerful causes which operated on the Ger- mans and Italians of the middle ages, as they now continue to operate on the Abyssinians of the present da} r . However these people may differ from us in their descent, their manners and their customs, the effects of the above-mentioned causes are the same in Africa as they were in Europe, for they operate on man himself independently of the particular locality in which he may be planted ; and the condition of the Abyssinians of modern times is, >in regard to superstition, a mirror of the condition of the Eu- ropean nations in the middle ages. Should this appear a bold as- sertion, it will be strengthened by the fact, that in Abyssinia, two examples of superstitions occur, which are completely in accord- ance with occurrences of the middle ages that took place contem- porarily with the dancing mania, The Abyssinians have their Christian flagellants, and there exists among them a belief in a Zoomorphism, which presents a lively image of the lycanthropy of the middle ages. Their flagellants are called Zackarys. They are united into a separate Christian fraternity, and make their 128 THE DANCING MANIA. processions through the towns and villages with groat noise and tumult, scoui'ging themselves till they draw blood, and wounding themselves with knives. 1 They boast that they are descendants of St. George. It is precisely in Tigre, the country of the Abys- sinian dancing mania, where they are found in the greatest num- bers, and where they have, in the neighbourhood of Axum, a church of their own, dedicated to their patron saint, Oun Arvel. Here there is an ever-burning lamp, and they contrive to impress a belief that this is kept alight by supernatural means. They also here keep a holy water, which is said to be a cure for those who are affected by the dancing mania. The Abyssinian Zoomorphism is a no less important phenome- non, and shows itself in a manner quite peculiar. The black- smiths and potters form, among the Abyssinians, a society or caste called in Tigre Tcbbib, and in Amhara Buda, which is held in some degree of contempt, and excluded from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, because it is believed that they can change them- selves into hyaenas and other beasts of prey, on which account they are feared by everybody, and regarded with horror. They art- fully contrive to keep up this superstition, because by this separa- tion they preserve a monopoly of their lucrative trades, and as in other respects they are good Christians (but few Jews or Mahome- dans live among them), they seem to attach no great consequence to their excommunication. As a badge of distinction, they wear a golden earring, which is frequently found in the ears of hyamas that are killed, without its having ever been discovered how they catch these animals, so as to decorate them with this strange orna- ment, and this removes, in the minds of the people, all doubt at to the supernatural powers of the smiths and potters. 2 To the Budas is also ascribed the gift of enchantment, especially that of the influence of the evil eye. 3 They nevertheless live unmolested, and are not condemned to the flames by fanatical priests, as the lycanthropes were in the middle ages. 1 Pearce, p. 289. Compare p. 34. — E. G. Forstemann, Die christlichen Geissler- gesellschaften. The Christian Societies of Flagellants. Halle, 1828. 8vo. 2 Idem, loc. cit. 3 Among the ancient Greeks (5aaKr}oiQ. This superstition is more or less developed among all the nations of the earth, and has not yet entirely disappeared from Europe. SYMPATHY. 129 CHAPTER IV. SYMPATHY. Imitation — compassion — sympathy, these are imperfect designa- tions for a common bond of union anions: human beinsrs — for an instinct which connects individuals with the general body, which embraces with equal force, reason and folly, good and evil, and diminishes the praise of virtue as well as the criminality of vice. In this impulse there are degrees, but no essential differences, from the first intellectual efforts of the infant mind, which are in a great measure based on imitation, to that morbid condition of the soul in which the sensible impression of a nervous malady fetters the mind, and finds its way, through the eye, directly to the dis- eased texture, as the electric shock is propagated by contact from body to body. To this instinct of imitation, when it exists in its highest degree, is united a loss of all power over the will, which occurs as soon as the impression on the senses has become firmly established, producing a condition like that of small animals when they are fascinated by the look of a serpent. By this mental bondage, morbid sympathy is clearly and definitely distinguished from all subordinate degrees of this instinct, however closely al- lied the imitation of a disorder may seem to be to that of a mere folly, of an absurd fashion, of an awkward habit in speech and manner, or even of a confusion of ideas. Even these latter imita- tions, however, directed as they are to foolish and pernicious ob- jects, place the self-independence of the greater portion of man- kind in a very doubtful light, and account for their union into a social whole. Still more nearly allied to morbid sympathy than the imitation of enticing folly, although often with a considerable admixture of the latter, is the diffusion of violent excitements, espe- cially those of a religious or political character, which have so powerfully agitated the nations of ancient and modern times, and which may, after an incipient compliance, 1 pass into a total loss of power over the will, and an actual disease of the mind. Far be it from us to attempt to awaken all the various tones of this chord, whose vibrations reveal the profound secrets which lie hid in the inmost recesses of the soul. We might well want powers adequate to so vast an undertaking. Our business here is only with that morbid sympathy, by the aid of which the dancing mania of the middle ages grew into a real epidemic. In order to 1 raracelsus. 9 130 THE DANCING MANIA. make this apparent by comparison, it may not be out of place, at the close of this inquiry, to introduce a few striking examples : — 1. "At a cotton manufactory at Hodden Bridge, in Lancashire, a girl, on the fifteenth of February, 178T, put a mouse into the bosom of another girl, who had a great dread of mice. The girl was immediately thrown into a fit, and continued in it, with the most violent convulsions, for twenty-four hours. On the follow- ing da}-, three more girls were seized in the same manner ; and on the 17th, six more. By this time the alarm was so great, that the whole work, in which 200 or 300 were employed, was totally stopped, and an idea prevailed that a particular disease had been introduced by a bag of cotton opened in the house. On Sunday the 18th, Dr. St. Clare was sent for from Preston ; before he arrived three more were seized, and during that night and the morning of the 19th, eleven more, making in all twenty-four. Of these, twenty-one were young women, two were girls of about ten years of age, and one man, who had been much fatigued with holding the girls. Three of the number lived about two miles from the place where the disorder first broke out, and three at another factory at Clitheroe, about five miles distant, which last and two more were infected entirely from report, not having seen the other patients, but, like them and the rest of the country, strongly impressed with the idea of the plague being caught from the cotton. The symptoms were anxiety, strangulation, and very strong convulsions ; and these were so violent as to last without any intermission from a quarter of an hour to twenty-four hours, and to require four or five persons to prevent the patients from tearing their hair and dashing their heads against the floor or walls. Dr. St. Clare had taken with him a portable electrical machine, and by electric shocks the patients were universally re- lieved without exception. As soon as the patients and the country were assured that the complaint was merely nervous, easily cured, and not introduced by the cotton, no fresh person was affected. To dissipate their apprehension still further, the best effects were obtained by causing them to take a cheerful glass and join in a dance. On Tuesday the 20th, they danced, and the next day were all at work, except two or three, who were much weakened by their fits." 1 1 Gentleman's Magazine* 1787, March, p. 268.— F. B. Osiander, Ueber die Ent- witkelungskrankhcitcn in den Bliithcnjahren des weiblichen Geschlechts. On the dis- orders of young women, &c. Tubingen, 1820, Vol. I. p. 10. SYMPATHY. 1 3 ] The occurrence here described is remarkable on this account, that there was no important predisposing cause for convulsions in these young women, unless we consider as such their miserable and confined life in the work-rooms of a spinning manufactory. It did not arise from enthusiasm, nor is it stated that the patients had been the subjects of any other nervous disorders. In another perfectly analogous case, those attacked were all suffering from nervous complaints, which roused a morbid sympathy in them at the sight of a person seized with convulsions. This, together with the supervention of hysterical fits, may aptly enough be compared to Tarantism. 2. "A young woman of the lowest order, twenty-one years of age, and of a strong frame, came on the 13th of January, 1801, to visit a patient in the Charite hospital at Berlin, where she had herself been previously under treatment for an inflammation of the chest with tetanic spasms, and immediately on entering the ward, fell down in strong convulsions. At the sight of her violent con- tortions, six other female patients immediately became affected in the same way, and by degrees eight more were in like manner attacked with strong convulsions. All these patients were from sixteen to twenty-five years of age, and suffered without excep- tion, one from spasms in the stomach, another from palsy, a third from lethargy, a fourth from fits with consciousness, a fifth from catalepsy, a sixth from syncope, &c. The convulsions, which alternated in various ways with tonic spasms, were accompanied by loss of sensibility, and were invariably preceded by languor with heavy sleep, which was followed by the fits in the course of a minute or two ; and it is remarkable, that in all these patients their former nervous disorders, not excepting paralysis, disappear- ed, returning, however, after the subsequent removal of their new complaint. The treatment, during the course of which two of the nurses, who were young women, suffered similar attacks, was continued for four months. It was finally successful, and con- sisted principally in the administration of opium, at that time the favourite remedy." ' Now, every species of enthusiasm, every strong affection, every violent passion, may lead to convulsions — to mental disorders — to a concussion of the nerves, from the sensorium to the very finest extremities of the spinal chord. The whole world is full of 1 This account is given by Fritze. Hufeland's Journal dcr practisch.cn Heilkundc, Vol. XII. 1801. Tart I. p. 110. Hufeland's Journal of Practical Medicine. 9 * 132 THE DANCING MANIA. examples of this afflicting state of turmoil, which, when the mind is carried away by the force of a sensual impression that destroys its freedom, is irresistibly propagated by imitation. Those who are thus infected do not spare even their own lives, but, as a hunted flock of sheep will follow their leader and rush over a precipice, so will whole hosts of enthusiasts, deluded by their in- fatuation, hurry on to a self-inflicted death. Such has ever been the case, from the days of the Milesian virgins to the modern associations for self-destruction. 1 Of all enthusiastic infatuations, however, that of religion is the most fertile in disorders of the mind as well as of the body, and both spread with the greatest facility by sympathy. The history of the church furnishes in- numerable proofs of this, but we need go no further than the most recent times. 3. In a Methodist chapel at Redruth, a man, during divine ser- vice, cried out with a loud voice, "What shall I do to be saved ?" at the same time manifesting the greatest uneasiness and solicitude respecting the condition of his soul. Some other members of the congregation, following his example, cried out in the same form of words, and seemed shortly after to suffer the most excruciating bodily pain. This strange occurrence was soon publicly known, and hundreds of people, who had come thither, either attracted by curiosity, or a desire, from other motives, to see the sufferers, fell into the same state. The chapel remained open for some days and nights, and from that point the new disorder spread itself, with the rapidity of lightning, over the neighbouring towns of Camborne, Helston, Truro, Fenryn, and Falmouth, as well as over the villages in the vicinity. Whilst thus advancing, it decreased in some measure at the place where it had first ap- peared, and it confined itself throughout to the Methodist chapels. It was only by the words which have been mentioned that it was excited, and it seized none but people of the lowest education. Those who were attacked betrayed the greatest anguish, and fell into convulsions ; others cried out, like persons possessed, that the Almighty would straightway pour out his wrath upon them, that the wailings of tormented spirits rang in their ears, and that they saw hell open to receive them. The clergy, when, in the course of their sermons, they perceived that persons were thus seized, 1 Compare J. G. Zimmermann, Ueber die Einsamkeit. Leipsig, 1784. 8vo. Vol. IT. ch. 6. p. 77. On Solitude.— J. r. Falret, De Phypochondric et du suicide. Paris, 1822. 8vo., and others. SYMPATHY. 133 earnestly exhorted them to confess their sins, and zealously en- deavoured to convince them that they were by nature enemies to Christ ; that the anger of God had therefore fallen upon them ; and that if death should surprise them in the midst of their sins, the eternal torments of hell would be their portion. The over- excited congregation upon this repeated their words, which naturally must have increased the fury of their convulsive attacks. When the discourse had produced its full effect, the preacher changed his subject ; reminded those who were suffering of the power of the Saviour, as well as of the grace of God, and repre- sented to them in glowing colours the joys of heaven. Upon this a remarkable reaction sooner or later took place. Those who were in convulsions felt themselves raised from the lowest depths of misery and despair to the most exalted bliss, and triumphantly shouted out that their bonds were loosed, their sins were forgiven, and that they were translated to the wonderful freedom of the children of God. In the mean time, their convulsions continued, and they remained, during this condition, so abstracted from every earthly thought, that they staid two and sometimes three days and nights together in the chapels, agitated all the time by spas- modic movements, and taking neither repose nor nourishment. According to a moderate computation, 4000 people were, within a very short time, affected with this convulsive malady. The course and symptoms of the attacks were in general as follows : — There came on at first a feeling of faintness, with rigour and a sense of weight at the pit of the stomach, soon after which, the patient cried out, as if in the agonies of death or the pains of labour. The convulsions then began, first showing them- selves in the muscles of the eyelids, though the eyes themselves were fixed and staring. The most frightful contortions of the countenance followed, and the convulsions now took their course downwards, so that the muscles of the neck and trunk were affect- ed, causing a sobbing respiration, which was performed with great effort. Tremors and agitation ensued, and the patients scream- ed out violently, and tossed their heads about from side to side. As the complaint increased, it seized the arms, and its victims beat their breasts, clasped their hands, and made all sorts of strange gestures. The observer who gives this account remarked that the lower extremities were in no instance affected. In some cases, exhaustion came on in a very few minutes, but the attack usually lasted much longer, and there were even cases in which it was known to continue for sixty or seventy hours. Many of those 134 THE DANCING MANIA. who happened to be seated when the attack commenced, bent their bodies rapidly backwards and forwards during its continuance, making a corresponding motion with their arms, like persons sawing wood. Others shouted aloud, leaped about, and threw their bodies into every possible posture, until they had exhausted their strength. Yawning took place at the commencement in all cases, but as the violence of the disorder increased, the circulation and respiration became accelerated, so that the countenance assumed a swollen and puffed appearance. When exhaustion came on, patients usually fainted, and remained in a stiff and motionless state until their re- covery. The disorder completely resembled the St. Vitus's dance, but the fits sometimes went on to an extraordinarily violent ex- tent, so that the author of the account once saw a woman, who was seized with these convulsions, resist the endeavours of four or five strong men to restrain her. Those patients who did not lose their consciousness were in general made more furious by every attempt to quiet them by force, on which account they were in general suffered to continue unmolested xmtil nature herself brought on exhaustion. Those affected complained, more or less, of debility after the attacks, and cases sometimes occurred in which they passed into other disorders : thus some fell into a state of melancholy, which, however, in consequence of their re- ligious ecstacy, was distinguished by the absence of fear and despair ; and in one patient inflammation of the brain is said to have taken place. No sex or age was exempt from this epidemic malady. Children five years old and octogenarians were alike affected by it, and even men of the most powerful frame were subject to its influence. Girls and 3 7 oung women, however, were its most frequent victims. 1 4. For the last hundred years a nervous affection of a perfectly similar kind has existed in the Shetland Islands, which furnishes a striking example, perhaps the only one now existing, of the very lasting propagation by sympathy of this species of disorders. The origin of the malady was very insignificant. An epileptic woman had a fit in church, and whether it was that the minds of the congregation were excited by devotion, or that, being over- come at the sight of the strong convulsions, their sympathy was called forth, certain it is, that many adult women, and even children, some of whom were of the male sex, and not more than 1 This statement is made by J. Cornish. See Fothcrgill and Want's Medical and ]"iys:cal Journal, vol. xxxi. 1814. pp. 373 — 379. SYMPATHY. 135 six years old, began to complain forthwith of palpitation, follow- ed by faintness, which passed into a motionless and apparently cataleptic condition. These symptoms lasted more than an hour, and probably recurred frequently. In the course of time, however, this malady is said to have undergone a modification, such as it exhibits at the present day. "Women whom it has attacked will suddenly fall down, toss their arms about, writhe their bodies into various shapes, move their heads suddenly from side to side, and with eyes fixed and staring, utter the most dismal cries. If the fit happen on any occasion of public diversion, they will, as soon as it has ceased, mix with their companions, and continue their amusement as if nothing had happened. Paroxysms of this kind used to prevail most during the warm months of summer, and about fifty years ago there was scarcely a Sabbath in which they did not occur. Strong passions of the mind, induced by religious enthusiasm, are also exciting causes of these fits, but like all such false tokens of divine workings, they are easily encounter- ed by producing in the patient a different frame of mind, and especially by exciting a sense of shame : thus those affected are under the control of any sensible preacher, who knows how to " administer to a mind diseased," and to expose the folly of volun- tarily yielding to a sympathy so easily resisted, or of inviting such attacks by affectation. An intelligent and pious minister of Shetland informed the physician, who gives an account of this disorder as an eye-witness, that being considerably annoyed, on his first introduction into the country, by these paroxysms, where- by the devotions of the church were much impeded, he obviated their repetition by assuring his parishioners, that no treatment was more effectual than immersion in cold w T ater : and as his kirk was fortunately contiguous to a fresh-water lake, he gave notice that attendants should be at hand, during divine service, to ensure the proper means of cure. The sequel need scarcely be told. The fear of being carried out of the church, and into the water, acted like a charm ; not a single Naiad was made, and the worthy minister, for many years, had reason to boast of one of the best- regulated congregations in Shetland. As the physician above alluded to was attending divine service in the kirk of Baliasta, on the Isle of Unst, a female shriek, the indication of a convulsion fit, was heard ; the minister, Mr. Ingram, of Fctlar, very proper- ly stopped his discourse, until the disturber was removed ; and, after advising all those who thought they might be similarly affected, to leave the church, he gave out, in the mean time, a 136 THE DANCING MANIA. psalm. The congregation was thus preserved from further in- terruption ; yet the effect of sympathy was not prevented, for as the narrator of the account was leaving the church, he saw several females writhing and tossing about their arms on the green grass, who durst not, for fear of a censure from the pulpit, exhibit themselves after this manner within the sacred walls of the kirk. 1 In the production of this disorder, which no doubt still exists, fanaticism certainly had a smaller share than the irritable state of women out of health, who only needed excitement, no matter of what kind, to throw them into the prevailing nervous paroxysms. When, however, that powerful cause of nervous disorders takes the lead, we find far more remarkable symptoms developed, and it then depends on the mental condition of the people among whom they appear, whether, in their spread, they shall take a narrow or an extended range — whether, confined to some small knot of zealots, they are to vanish without a trace, or whether they are to attain even historical importance. 5. The appearance of the Convulsionnaires in France, whose inhabitants, from the greater mobility of their blood, have in general been the less liable to fanaticism, is, in this respect, in- structive and worthy of attention. In the year 1727 there died, in the capital of that country, the Deacon Paris, a zealous opposer of the Ultramontanists, division having arisen in the French church on account of the bull " Unigenitus." People made fre- quent visits to his tomb, in the cemetery of St. Medard, and four years afterwards (in September, 1731), a rumour was spread, that miracles took place there. Patients were seized with convulsions and tetanic spasms, rolled upon the ground like persons possessed, were thrown into violent contortions of their heads and limbs, and suffered the greatest oppression, accompanied by quickness and irregularity of pidse. This novel occurrence excited the greatest sensation all over Paris, and an immense concourse of people re- sorted daily to the above-named cemetery, in order to see so wonderful a spectacle, which the Ultramontanists immediately in- terpreted as a work of Satan, while their opponents ascribed it to a divine influence. The disorder soon increased, until it produced, in nervous women, clairvoyance (Schlafwachen), a phenomenon till then unknown; for one female especially attracted attention, 1 Samuel Hibbert, Description of the Shetland Islands, comprising an account of their geology, scenery, antiquities, and superstitions. Edinburgh, 1822. 4to. p. 399. SYMPATHY. 137 who blindfold, and, as it was believed, by means of the sense of smell, read every writing that was placed before her, and distin- guished the characters of unknown persons. The very earth taken from the grave of the Deacon was soon thought to possess miraculous power. It was sent to numerous sick persons at a dis- tance, whereby they were said to have been cured, and thus this nervous disorder spread far beyond the limits of the capital, so that at one time it was computed that there were more than eight hundred decided Convulsionnaires, who would hardly have in- creased so much in numbers, had not Louis XV. directed that the cemetery should be closed. 1 The disorder itself assumed various forms, and augmented, by its attacks, the general excitement. Many persons, besides suffering from the convulsions, became the subjects of violent pain, which required the assistance of their brethren of the faith. On this account they, as well as those who afforded them aid, were called by the common title of Secourists. The modes of relief adopted were remarkably in accordance with those which were administered to the St. John's dancers and the Tarantati, and they were in general very rough ; for the sufferers were beaten and goaded in various parts of the body with stones, hammers, swords, clubs, &c, of which treatment the defenders of this extraordinary sect relate the most astonishing examples, in proof that severe pain is imperatively demanded by nature in this disorder, as an effectual counter-irritant. The Secourists used wooden clubs, in the same manner as paviours use their mallets, and it is stated that some Convulsionnaires have borne daily from six to eight thousand blows, thus inflicted, without danger. 2 One Secourist administered to a young woman, who was suffering un- der spasm of the stomach, the most violent blows on that part, not to mention other similar cases, which occurred everywhere in great numbers. Sometimes the patients bounded from the ground, impelled by the convulsions, like fish when out of water ; and this was so frequently imitated at a later period, that the women and girls, when they expected such violent contortions, not wishing to 1 About this time the following couplet was circulated : — " De par lc Roi, defense a Dieu De faire miracle dans ce lieu." 2 This kind of assistance was called the " Grands Secours." Boursier, Memoire Theologique sur ce qu'on appelle les Secours violens dans les Convulsions. Paris, 1788. 12mo. Many Convulsionnaires were seized with illness in consequence of this singularly erroneous mode of cure. A Dominican friar died from the effects of it — though accidents of this kind were kept carefully concealed. See Renault (parish priest at Vaux, near Auxerre; obiit, 1796), Le Secourisme detruit dans ses fondeinens, 1759, 12mo., and Le Mystere d'Iniquite, 1788. 8vo. 138 THE DANCING MANIA. appear indecent, put on gowns, made like sacks, closed at the feet. If they received any bruises by falling down, they were healed with earth from the grave "of the uncanonized saint. They usu- ally, however, showed great agility in this respect, and it is scarcely necessary to remark that the female sex especially was distinguish- ed by all kinds of leaping, and almost inconceivable contortions of body. Some spun round on their feet with incredible rapidity, as is related of the dervishes ; others ran their heads against walls, or curved their bodies like rope-dancers, so that their heels touch- ed their shoulders. All this degenerated at length into decided insanity. A certain Convulsionnaire, at Vernon, who had formerly led rather a loose course of life, employed herself in confessing the other sex ; in other places women of this sect were seen imposing exercises of penance on priests, during which these were compelled to kneel before them. Others played with children's rattles, or drew about small carts, and gave to these childish acts symbolical signi- fications. 1 One Convulsionnaire even made believe to shave her chin, and gave religious instruction at the same time, in order to imitate Paris, the worker of miracles, who during this operation, and whilst at table, was in the habit of preaching. Some had a board placed across their bodies, upon which a whole row of men stood ; and as, in this unnatural state of mind, a kind of pleasure is derived from excruciating pain, some too were seen who caused their bosoms to be pinched with tongs, while others, with gowns closed at the feet, stood upon their heads, and remained in that position longer than would have been possible had they been in health. Pinault, the advocate, who belonged to this sect, barked like a dog some hours every day, and even this found imitation among the believers. The insanity of the Convulsionnaires lasted, without interrup- tion, until the year 1790, and, during these fifty-nine years, call- ed forth more lamentable phenomena than the enlightened spirits of the eighteenth century would be willing to allow. The gross- est immorality found, in the secret meetings of the believers, a sure sanctuary, and, in their bewildering devotional exercises, a convenient cloak. It was of no avail that, in the year 1762, the Grands Secours was forbidden by act of parliament ; for thence- ' Arouet, the father of Voltaire, visited, in Nantes, a celebrated Convulsionnaire, Gabrielle Mollet, whom he found occupied in pulling the bells off a child's coral, to de- signate the rejection of the unbelievers. Sometimes she jumped into the water, and barked like a dog. She died in 1748. SYMPATHY. 139 forth this work was carried on in secrecy, and with greater zeal than ever ; it was in vain, too, that some physicians, and, among the rest, the austere, pious Hecquet, 1 and after him Lorry, 2 at- tributed the conduct of the Convulsionnaires to natural causes. Men of distinction among the upper classes, as, for instance, Montgeron the deputy, and Lambert an ecclesiastic (obt. 1813), stood forth as the defenders of this sect ; and the numerous writ- ings 3 which were exchanged on the subject, served, by the im- portance which they thus attached to it, to give it stability. The revolution, finally, shook the structure of this pernicious mysticism. It was not, however, destroyed ; for, even during the period of the greatest excitement, the secret meetings were still kept up ; prophetic books, by Convulsionnaires of various denominations, have appeared even in the most recent times, and only a few years ago (in 1828) this once celebrated sect still existed, although with- out the convulsions and the extraordinarily rude aid of the bre- thren of the faith, which, amidst the boasted pre-eminence of French intellectual advancement, remind us most forcibly of the dark ages of the St. John's dancers. 4 6. Similar fanatical sects exhibit among all nations 5 of ancient and modern times the same phenomena. An overstrained bigotry 1 J. Phil. Hecquet (obiit 1737). Le Naturalisme des Convulsions. Soleure, 1733. 8vo. 2 De Melancholia et Morbis Melancholicis. Paris, 1765. 2 vols. 8vo. 3 Especially from 1784 to 1788. 4 See Gregoire, Histoire des Sectes Iteligieuscs, tome ii. ch. 13. p. 127. Paris, 1828. 8vo. The following words of this meritorious author, on the mental state of his countrymen, are very well worthy of attention. "L' esprit public est dans un etat de fluctuation perseverante : des times fietries par V ego'isme n'ont que le caractere de la servitude ; 1' education viciee ne forme guere que des etres degrades ; la religion est meconnue ou mal enseignee ; la nation presente des symptCmcs alarmans de sa decrepi- tude, et presage des malheurs dont on ne peut calculer l'etendue ni la duree." P. 161. 5 " I had occasion to witness at Cairo another species of religious fanaticism. I heard one day, at a short distance from my residence, for several hours together, singing, or more properly crying, so uniform and fatiguing, that I inquired the cause of this singularity. I was told that it was some dervise or monk, who repeated, while dancing on his heels, the name of Allah, till, completely exhausted, he sank down insensible. These unhappy visionaries, in fact, often expire at the end of this holy dance; and the cries of the one whom I heard, having commenced in the afternoon, and con- tinued during the whole of the night, and part of the following morning, I doubt not that his pious enthusiasm cost him his life."— Recollections of Egypt, by the Baroness Von Minutoli. London, 1827. In Arabia the same fanatical zeal exists, as we find from the following passage of an anonymous history of the Wahabis, published in Paris, in 1810 : "La priere la plus meritoire consiste a crier le nom de Dieu, pendant des heures entieres, et le plus saint est celni qui rcpete ce nom le plus long temps et le plus vite. Ricn de plus curieux que le spectacle des Schekhs, qui, dans les fetes publiques, s'essayent a 1'envi, et hurlent le nom d' Allah d'une maniere effrayante. La plupart enrouos sont forces de se taire, 140 THE DANCING MANIA. is, in itself, and considered in a medical point of view, a destruc- tive irritation of the senses, which draws men away from the effi- ciency of mental freedom, and peculiarly favours the most injuri- ous emotions. Sensual ebullitions, with strong convulsions of the nerves, appear sooner or later, 1 and insanity, suicidal disgust of life, and incurable nervous disorders, 2 are but too frequently the consequences of a perverse, and, indeed, hypocritical zeal, which has ever prevailed, as well in the assemblies of the Mamades and Corybantes of antiquity, as under the semblance of religion among the Christians and Mahomedans. There are some denominations of English Methodists which sur- pass, if possible, the French Convulsionnaires ; and we may here mention, in particular, the Jumpers, among whom it is still more difficult, than in the example given above, to draw the line be- tween religious ecstacy and a perfect disorder of the nerves ; sympathy, however, operates perhaps more perniciously on them than on other fanatical assemblies. The sect of Jumpers was founded in the year 17G0, in the county of Cornwall, by two fanatics, 3 who were, even at that time, able to collect together a considerable party. Their general doctrine is that of the Method- ists, and claims our consideration here, only in so far as it en- joins them, during their devotional exercises, to fall into convul- sions, which they are able to effect in the strangest manner imaginable. By the use of certain unmeaning words, they work themselves up into a state of religious frenzy, in which they seem to have scarcely any control over their senses. They then begin to jump with strange gestures, repeating this exercise with all their might, until they are exhausted, so that it not unfrequently happens that women, who, like the Mamades, practise these reli- gious exercises, are carried away from the midst of them in a state of syncope, whilst the remaining members of the congregations, for miles together, on their way home, terrify those whom they meet by et abandonnent la palme au saint a forte poitrine, qui, pour jouir de sa victoirc, s'efforce ct jettc encore quelque cris devant ses rivaux reduits au silence. Epuise de fatigue, baigne de sueur, il tombe enfin au milieu du peuple devot, qui s'empresse a le relever et le porte en triompbe. Les principales mosquecs retentissent, tons les Yendredis, des cris dictes par cette singuliere emulation. Le Scbekh, que ses poumons ont sanctifie, conserve son odeur de saintete par des extaseset des transports, souvent dangereux pour les Chretiens que le hazard en rend temoins malgre eux." — Transl. note. 1 For examples see Osiander, Entwiekelungskrankkeiten. Loc. cit. p. 45. 2 Among 108 cases of insanity, Perfect mentions eleven of mania and methodistical enthusiasm, in nine of which suicide was committed. Annals of Insanity. London, 1808. Svii. 3 Harris Rowland and William Williams. SYMPATHY. 1-il the siffht of such demoniacal ravings. There are never more than a few ecstatics, who, by their example, excite the rest to jump, and these are followed by the greatest part of the meeting, so that these assemblages of the Jumpers resemble, for hours together, the wildest orgies, rather than congregations met for Christian edification. 1 In the United States of North America, communities of Me- thodists have existed for the last sixty years. The reports of credible witnesses of their assemblages for divine service in the open air (camp meetings), 2 to which many thousands flock from great distances, 3 surpass, indeed, all belief; for not only do they there repeat all the insane acts of the French Convulsionnaires and of the English Jumpers, but the disorder of their minds and of their nerves attains, at these meetings, a still greater height. "Women have been seen to miscarry whilst suffering under the state of ecstacy and violent spasms into which they are thrown, and others have publicly stripped themselves and jumped into the rivers. They have swooned away 4 by hundreds, worn out with ravings and fits ; and of the Barkers, who appeared among the Convulsionnaires only here and there, in single cases of complete aberration of intellect, whole bands are seen running on all fours, and growling 5 as if they wished to indicate, even by their out- ward form, the shocking degradation of their human nature. At these camp-meetings the children are witnesses of this mad in- fatuation, and as their weak nerves are, with the greatest facility, affected by sympathy, they, together with their parents, fall into violent fits, though they know nothing of their import, and many of them retain for life some severe nervous disorder, which, having 1 John Evans, Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World. 13th edition. London, 1814. 12mo. p. 236.— See Gregoire, loc. cit. tome iv. chap. xiii. p. 483. 2 Mrs. Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans. A Revival, pp. 108— 112. Shaking Quakers, pp. 195, 196. Camp Meeting, p. 233. London, 2 vols. 1832.— Transl. note. 3 In Kentucky, assemblies of from ten to twelve thousand have frequently taken place. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and New York, are also the theatres of these meetings. — Gregoire, tome iv. p. 496. 4 At one of these camp-meetings a traveller saw above eight hundred persons faint away. Idem. He nowhere met with more frequent instances of suicide in consequence of Demonomania, than in North America. 5 Idem. p. 498. These are the Barkers. Numerous other convulsive Methodistical sects abound in North America. The Shakers, who are inimical to marriage, would also have been mentioned, were not their contortions much less violent than those of the Jumpers.— See Gregoire, tome v. p. 195. Evans, p. 267. 142 THE DANCING MANIA. arisen from fright and excessive excitement, will not afterwards yield to any medical treatment. 1 But enough of these extravagances, which, even in our own days, embitter the lives of so many thousands, and exhibit to the world, in the nineteenth century, the same terrific form of men- tal disturbance as the St. Vitus's dance once did to the benighted nations of the middle ages. 1 Sec Perrin du Lac, Voyage dans les deux Louisiancs. Paris, 1805. 8vo. chap. ix. pp. 64, Go. chap. xvii. pp. 128, 129. — Michaad, Voyage a l'ouest des Monts Alleghanys. Paris, 1804. 8vo. p. 212. — John Melish, Travels in the United States of America. Philadelphia, 1812. Svo. vol. i. p. 26. — Lambert, Travels through Canada and the United States, London, 1810. Svo. vol. iii. p. 44.— Jo/m Hoicison, Sketches of Upper Canada. Edinburgh, 1822. 8vo. p. 150. — Edward Allen Talbot, Cinq Annees de Residence au Canada. Paris, 1825. 8vo. tome ii. p. 147. ) APPENDIX. i. Petri de Rerentals, Prioris Plorefnensis Vita Gregoril XL, in Stephan. Baluzii Vitas Paparum Avenionensium. T. I. Paris, 1693. 4to. p. 483. Ejus tempore, videlicet A. D. MCCCLXXV, mira secta tarn virorum quam mulierum venit Aquisgrani de partibus Alamannia?, et aseendit usque Hanoniam seu Pranciam, cujus talis fuit conditio. Nam homines utriusque sexus illudebantur a dsemonio, taliter quod tarn in domibus quam in plateis et in Ecclesiis se invicem manibus tenentes chorizabant et in altum saltabant, ac quaedam nomina daemoniorum nominabant, videlicet FrisTces et similia, nullum cognitionem in bujusmodi cborizatione nee verecundiam sui propter astantes populos babentes. Et in fine bu- jus chorizationis in tantum circa pectoralia torquebantur, quod nisi map- pulis lineis a suis amicis per medium ventris fortiter stringerentur, quasi furiose clamabant se mori. Hi vero in Leodio per conjurationes sumptas de illis qua3 in catecbismo ante baptismum fiunt, a da?monio liberabantur, et sanati dicebant, quod videbatur eis quod in liora hujus chorizationis er ant in Jluvio sanguinis, et propterea sic in altum saltabant. Vulgus autemapud Leodium dicebat quod hujusmodi plaga populo con- tigisset eo quod populus male baptizatus erat, maxime a Presbyteribus suas tenentibus concubinas. Et propter boc proposuerat vulgus insur- gere in clerum, eos occidendo et bona eorum diripiendo, nisi Deus de remedio providisset per conjurationes pra?dictas. Quo viso cessavit tem- pestas vulgi taliter quod clerus multo plus a populo fuit bonoratus. De isla autem chorizatione seu secta talia extant rigmata : Oritur in seculo nova quaedam secta In gestis aut in speculo visa plus nee lecta. Popidus tripudiat nimium saltando. Se unus alteri sociat leviter clamando. Frisch friskes cum gaudio clamat uterque sexus Cunctus manutergio et baculo connexus. Capite fert pelleum desuper sertum. Ccrnit Marice Jilium et caelum apertum. Hi THE DANCING MANIA. Deorsum prosternitur. Dud urn fit ululatus. Calcato ventre ceruitur statiin liberatus. Vagatur loca varia pompose vivendo. ]\Iendicat necessaria propriis parceudo. Spernit videre rubea et personam flentem. Ad fidei contraria erigit hie gensmentem. Noetis sub umbraculo ista perpetravit. Cum naturali bacido subtus se calcavit. Clerum liabet odio. Non curat sacramenta. Post sunt Leodio remedia inventa, Hanc nam fraudem qua suggessit sathan est convictus. Conjuratus evanescit. Hinc sit Christus benedictus. II. Jo. Pistorii Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Cbronicon magnum. Francof. 1654. fol.p. 319. De chorisantibus. Item Anno. Dn. MCCCLXXIV. tempore pontificatus venerabilis Domini Joannis de Arckel Episcopi Leodiensis, in mense Julio in cras- tino divisionis Apostolorum visi sunt dansatores scilicet chorisantes, qui postea venerunt Trajectum, Leodium, Tungrim et alia loca istarum par- tium in mense Septembri. Et coepit hsec dcemoniaca pest is vexare in dictis locis et circumvicinis masculos et fceminas maxime pauperes et levis opinionis ad magnum omnium terrorem ; pauci clericorum vel di- vitum sunt vexati. Serta in capitibus gestabant, circa ventrem mappa cum bacido se stringebant circa umbilicum, ubi post saltationem cadentes nimium torquebantur, et ne creparentur pedibus conculcabantur, vel contra creporem cum baculo ad mappam duriter se ligabant, vel cum pugno se trudi faciebant, rostra calceorum aliqui clamabant se abhorrere, unde in Leodio fieri tunc vetabantur. Ecclesias chorisando occupabant, et crescebant numerose de mense Septembri et Octobri, processiones fiebant ubique, litaniae et missa? speciales. Leodii apud Sanctam crucem scbolaris servitor in vesperis dedicationis, coepit ludere cum thuribulo, et post vesperas fortiter saltare. Evocatus a pluribus, nt diceret Pater noster, noluit, et Credo respondit in diabolum. Quod videns capel- lanus, allata stola conjuravit eum per exorcismnm baptizandorum, et statim dixit : Ecce inquit, scbolaris recedit cum parva toga et calceis rostratis. Die, tunc inquit, Pater noster et Credo. At ille utrumque dixit perfecte et curatus est. Apud Iiarstallium uno mane ante omnium Sanctorum, multi eorum ibi congregati consilium babuerunt, ut pariter venientes omnes canonicos, presby teres et clericos Leodienses occiderent. Canonicus quidam parvse mensa? minister Simon in claustro Leodiensi APrENDIX. 14") apud capellara Beata? Virginia, in Deo confortatus, scalam projecit in col- lum unius, dicens Evangelium : In principio erat verbum, super caput ejus, et per hoc fuit liberatus, et pro miraculo statim fuit pulsatum. Apud S. Bartolomseum Leodii, prsesentibus multis, cuidam alii exorci- santi respondit daemon : Ego exibo libenter. Expecta, inquit presbyter, volo tibi loqui. Et postquam aliquos alios curasset, dixit illi, loquere tu personaliter et respoude mihi. Turn solus respondit daemon: Nos eramus duo, sed socius meus nequior me, ante me exivit, habui tot pati in hoc corpore, si essem extra, nunquam intrarem in corpus Christianura. Cui presbyter : Quare iutrasti corpora talium personarum ? Eespondit : Clerici et presbyteres dicunt tot pulchra verba et tot orationes, ut non possemus iutrare corpora ipsorum. Si adhuc fuisset expectatum per quindenam vel mensem, nos intrassemus corpora divitum, et postea priucipum, et sic per eos destruxissemus clerum. Et hsec fuermit ibi a multis audita et postea a multis narrata. Hsec pestis intra annum satis invaluit, sed postea per tres aut quatuor annos omuiuo cessavit. III. 1 Die Limburger Chronik, herausgegeben von C. D. Vogel. Marburg, 1828, Svo. s. 71. Anno 1371 zu mitten im Sommer, da erhub sich ein wunderlieh Ding auff Erdreich, und sonderlich in Teutschen Landen, auff dem Rheiu und aufF der Mosel, also dass Leute anhuben zu tantzen und «u rasen, und stunden je zwey gegen ein, und tantzeten auff einer Statte eiuen halben Tag, und in dem Tantz da fielen sie etwan offt nieder, und liessen sich mit Fiissen tretten auff ihren Leib. Davon nahmen sie sich an, dass sie genesen waren. End lieffen von einer Stadt zu der an- dern, und von einer Kirchen zu der andern, und huben Geld auff von don Leuten, wo es ihnen mocht gewerden. Und wurd des Dings also viel, dass man zu Colin in der Stadt mehr dann fiiuff hundert Tantzer fand. Und fand man, dass es eine Ketzerey war, und geschahe um Golds willen, das ihr ein Theil Erau und Mann in Unkeuschheil mochten kommen, und die vollbringen. Und fand man da zu Colin mehr dann hundert Frauen und Dienstmagde, die nicht eheliche Manner batten. Die wurden alle in der Tantzerey Kinder-tragend, und wann dass sie tantzeten, so bunden und knebelten sie sich hart tun den Leib, dass sie desto geringer waren. Hierauff sprachen ein Theila Meister, sonderlich der guten Artzt, das ein Theil wurden tantzend, die von 1 The substance of Nos. III. and IV. having been embodied in the text, it seems only necessary to insert here the original old German, which is couched in language too coarse to admit of translation. — Transl. note. 10 146 THE DANCING MANIA. heisser Natur wiiren, und von andern gebreehlichen natiirlichen Sachen. Dann deren war wenig, denen das geschahe. Die Meister von der hei- ligcn Schrifb, die besehwohren der Tantzer ein Theil, die moynten, dass sie besessen waren von dem bosen Geist. Also nahin es ein betrogen End, uud wahrete wohl secbszebn Wccbenin diesen Landen oder in der Mass. Auch nahmen die vorgenannten Tiintzer Mann und Eraueu sicb an, dass sie kein roth sehen moehten. Und war ein eitel Teuseherey, und ist verbottschaft gewesen an Christum nach meinem Bediinken. IV. Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen. A. D. MCCCLXXIV. fol. 277. Coellen, 1499. fol. In dem seluen iair stonde eyn groisse kranckheit vp vnder den myn- schen, ind was doeh niet vill me gesyen dese selue kranckheit vur off nae ind quam van natuerlichen ursachen as die meyster schrijuen, ind noemen Sij maniam, dat is raserie off unsynnicheit. Ind vill hide beyde man ind frauwen junck ind alt hadden die kranckheit. Ind gyngen vyss huyss ind hoff, dat deden ouch junge meyde, die verliessen yr ahleren, vrunde ind maege ind lantschaff. Disse vurss mynschen zo etzlichen tzijden as Sij die kranckheit anstiesse, so hadden Sij eyn won- derlich bewegung yrre lychamen. Sij gauen vyss kryschende vnd grusame stymme, ind mit dem wurpen Sij sich haestlich up die erden, vnd gyngen liggen up yren rugge, ind beyde man ind vrauwen moist men vmb yren buych ind vmp lenden gurdelen vnd kneuelen mit twelen vnd mit starcken breyden benden, asso stijff vnd harte als men mochte. Item asso gegurt mit den twelen dantzten Sij in kyrchen ind in clusen ind vp alien gewijeden steden. As Sij dantzten, so sprungen Sij allit vp ind rieffen, Here sent Johan, so so, vrisch ind vro here sent Jolian. Item die ghene die die kranckheit hadden wurden gemeynlichen gesunt bynnen. W. dagen. Zom lesten geschiede vill bouerie vnd droch dae mit. Eyndeyll naemen sich an dat Sij kranck weren. vp dat Sij moehten gelt dae durch bedelen. Die anderen vinsden sich kranck vp dat Sij moehten vnkuyschheit bedrijuen mit den vrauwen. jnd gyn- gen durch alle hint ind dreuen vill bouerie. Doeh zo lesten brach idt vyss ind wurden verdreuen vyss den landen. Die selue dentzer quamen ouch zo Coellen tusschen tzwen vnser lieuen frauwen missen Assump- tionis ind jNatiuitatis. APPENDIX. 147 V. In the third volume of the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, p. 434, there is an account of " some convulsive diseases in certain parts of Scotland," which is taken from Sir J. Sinclair's statistical account, and from which I have thought it illustrative of our author's subject to make some extracts ; the first that is noticed is peculiar to a part of Forfarshire, and is called the leaping ague, which bears so close an analogy to the original St. Vitus's Dance, or to Tarantism, that it seems to want only the "foul fiend," or the dreaded bite, as a cause, and a Scotch reel or strathspey as a cure, to render the resemblance quite com- plete. " Those affected with it first complain of a pain in the head, or lower part of the back, to which succeed convulsive fits, ovfits of dancing, at certain periods. During the paroxysm they have all the appearance of madness, distorting their bodies in various ways, and leaping and springing in a surprising manner, whence the disease has derived its vulgar name. Sometimes they run with astonishing velocity, and often over dangerous passes, to some place out of doors, which they have fixed on in their own minds, or, perhaps, even mentioned to those in company with them, and then drop down quite exhausted. At other times, especially when confined to the house, they climb in the most singular manner. In cottages, for example, they leap from the floor to what is called the baulks, or those beams by which the rafters are joined together, springing form one to another with the agility of a cat, or whirling round one of them, with a motion resembling the fly of a jack. Cold bathing is found to be the most effectual remedy ; but when the fit of dancing, leaping, or running comes on, nothing tends so much to abate the violence of the disease, as allowing them free scope to exercise themselves, till nature be exhausted. jSTo mention is made of its being peculiar to any age, sex, or condition of life, although I am informed by a gentleman from Brechin, that it is most common before puberty. In some families it seems to be hereditary ; and I have heard of one, in which a horse was always kept ready saddled, to follow the young ladies belonging to it, when they were seized with a fit of running. It was first observed in the parish of Kenmuir, and has prevailed occasion- ally in that and the neighbouring parishes, for about seventy years : but it is not now nearly so frequent as it was about thirty years ago. The history of this singular affection is still extremely imperfect : and it is only from some of the medical practitioners in that part of the country where it prevails, that a complete description can be expected." Our author has already noticed the convulsive disease prevalent in the Shetland Islands, and has quoted Hibbert's account of it. The follow- ing, however, from a very valuable manuscript account of the Orkney 10 * 148 THE DANCING MANIA.. and Shetland Islands, drawn up about 1774, by George Low, with notes, by Mr. Pennant, is given in the journal already cited, and w T ill be read with interest. The facts were communicated to Mr. Low by the Rev. "Win. Archibald, parochial clergyman of Unst, the most northerly of the Shetlands. " There is a most shocking distemper, which has of late years pre- vailed very much, especially among young women, and was hardly known thirty or forty years ago. About that period only one person was subject to it. The inhabitants gave it the name of convulsion fits ; and, indeed, in appearance it something resembles epilepsy. In its first rise it began with a palpitation of the heart, of which they complained for a considerable time ; it at length produced swooning fits, in which people seized with it would lie motionless upwards of an hour. At length, as the distemper gathered strength, w r hen any violent passion seized, or on a sudden surprise, they would all at once fall down, toss their arms about, with their bodies, into many odd shapes, crying out all the while, most dismally, throwing their heads about from side to side, with their eyes fixed and staring. At first this distemper obtained, in a private way, with one female, but she being seized in a public way, at church, the disease was communicated to others ; but, whether by the influence oifear or sympathy, is not easy to determine. However this was, our public assemblies, especially at church, became greatly dis- turbed by their outcries. This distemper always prevails most violently during the summer time, in which season, for many years, we are hardly one sabbath free. In these few years past, it has not prevailed so ex- tensively, and upon the whole, seems on the decline. One thing re- markable in this distemper is, that as soon as the fit is over, the persons affected with it are generally as lively and brisk as before ; and if it happens at any of their public diversions, as soon as they revive, they mix with their companions, and continue their amusement as vigorously as if nothing had happened. Few men are troubled with this distemper, wdiich seems more confined to women ; but there are instances of its seizing men, and girls of six years of age. "With respect to the nature of this disease, people who have made inquiry about it differ, but most imagine it hysterical ; however, this seems not entirely the case, as men and children are subject to it ; however, it is a new disease in Shetland, but whence imported, none can imagine. " When the statistical account of this parish was published, this aw- ful and afflicting disease was becoming daily less common. In the parishes of Aithsting, Saudsting, and Xorthmaven, in which it was once very frequent, it was now totally extinct. In the last of these the cure is said to have been effected by a very singular remedy, which, if true, and there seems no reason to doubt it, shows the influence of moral causes in removing, as well as inducing, convulsive disorders." The cure is attributed to a rough fellow of a kirk officer, who tossed a APPENDIX. 149 woman in that state, with whom he had been frequently troubled, into a ditch of -water. She was never known to have the disease afterwards, and others dreaded the same treatment. It, however, still prevails in some of the northern parishes, particu- larly in Delting, although, according to the description given of it, with some alteration in its symptoms. " Convulsion fits of a very extraordinary kind seem peculiar to this country. The patient is first seized with something like fainting, and immediately after utters wild cries and shrieks, the sound of which, at whatever distance, immediately puts all who are subject to the disorder in the same situation. It most commonly attacks them when the church is crowded, and often interrupts the service in this and many other churches in the country. On a sacramental occasion, fifty or sixty are sometimes carried out of the church, and laid in the church- yard, where they struggle and roar with all their strength, for five or ten minutes, and then rise up without recollecting a single circumstance that happened to them, or being in the least hurt or fatigued with the violent exertions they had made during the fit. One observation occurs on this disorder, that, during the late scarce years it was very uncom- mon, and, during the two last years of plenty (1791), it has appeared more frequently. " Similar instances of epidemical convulsions are already upon record ; but the history of that which occurred in Anglesea, North "Wales, is the most remarkable, as its progress was, in all probability, checked by the judicious precautions recommended by Dr. Haygarth. " In 1796, on the estates of the Earl of Uxbridge and Holland Grif- fith, Esq., 23 females, from 10 to 25, and one boy, of about 17 years of age, who had all intercourse with each other, were seized with an un- usual kind of convulsions, affecting only the upper extremities. It began with pain of the head, and sometimes of the stomach and side, not very violent ; after which there came on violent twitchings or convulsions of the upper extremities, continuing, with little intermission, and causing the shoulders almost to meet by the exertion. In bed the disorder was not so violent : but, in some cases at least, it continued even during sleep. Their pulse was moderate, the body costive, and the general health not much impaired. In general they had a hiccough ; and, when the convulsions were most violent, giddiness came on, with the loss of hearing and recollection. During their convalescence, and they all recovered, the least fright or sudden alarm brought on a slight paroxysm. " Dr. Haygarth, who was consulted on the means of relieving these unfortunate people, successfully recommended the use of antispasmodics ; that all girls and young women should be prevented from having any communication with persons affected with those convulsions ; and that those who were ill should be kept separate as much as possible." 150 THE DANCING MANIA. The same paper from which the above extracts have been taken, quotes a remarkable instance in which religious enthusiasm was the ex- citing cause of a convulsive disease analogous to those already noticed. The account is given by the Eev. Dr. Meik, at great length. It ap- pears that in January, 1742, about 90 persons in the parish of Cam- buslaug, in Lanarkshire, were induced to subscribe a petition to the minister, urging him to give them a weekly lecture, to which he readily assented. Nothing particular occurred at the first two lectures, but, at the third, to which the hearers had been very attentive, when the minis- ter in his last prayer expressed himself thus, " Lord, who hath believed our report ; and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? — where are the fruits of my poor labours among this people?" several persons in the congregation cried out publicly, and about fifty men and women came to the minister's house, expressing strong convictions of sin, and alarming fears of punishment. After this period, so many people from the neighbourhood resorted to Cambuslang, that the minister thought himself obliged to provide them with daily sermons or exhortations, and actually did so for seven or eight months. The way in which the con- verts were affected, for it seems they were affected much in the same way, though in very different degrees, is thus described. " They were seized, all at once, commonly by something said in the sermons or prayers, with the most dreadful apprehensions concerning the state of their souls, insomuch that many of them could not abstain from crying out, in the most public and frightful manner, ' bewailing their lost and undone condition by nature ; calling themselves enemies to G-od, and despisers of precious Christ ; declaring that they were unworthy to live on the face of the earth ; that they saw the mouth of hell open to receive them, and that they heard the shrieks of the damned ; ' but the universal cry was, ' AVhat shall we do to be saved ? ' The agony under which they laboured was expressed, not only by words, but also by vio- lent agitations of body ; by clapping their hands and beating their breasts ; by shaking and trembling ; by faintings and convulsions ; and sometimes by excessive bleeding at the nose. While they were in this distress, the minister often called out to them, not to stifle or smother their convictions, but to encourage them : and, after sermon was ended, he retired with them to the manse, and frequently spent the best part of the night with them in exhortations ?nd prayers. Next day, before sermon began, they were brought out, and, having napkins tied round their heads, were placed all together on seats before the tents, where they remained sobbing, weeping, and often crying aloud, till the service was over. Some of those who fell under conviction were never converted ; but most of those who fell under it were converted in a few days, and sometimes in a few hours. In most cases their conversion was as sud- den and unexpected as their conviction. They Avere raised all at once from the lowest depth of sorrow and distress, to the highest pitch of APPENDIX. 151 joy and happiness ; crying out with triumph and exultation, ' that they had overcome the wicked one ; that they had gotten hold of Christ, and would never let him go ; that the hlack cloud which had hitherto con- cealed him from their view, was now dispelled ; and that they saw him, with a pen in his hand, blotting out their sins.' Under these delightful impressions, some began to pray, and exhort publicly, and others desired the congregation to join with them in singing a particular psalm, which they said God had commanded them to sing. From the time of their con- viction to their conversion, many had no appetite for food, or inclination to sleep, and all complained of their sufferings during that interval." The following account, which closes the paper whence the above quot- ations have been extracted, is taken from an Inaugural Essay on Chorea Sancti Viti, by Felix Robertson of Tennessee, 8vo. Philadelph. 1805. " The Chorea, which is more particularly the subject of this disserta- tion, made its appearance during the summer of 1S03, in the neighbour- hood of Maryville (Tennessee), in the form of an epidemic. Previously to entering on its history, I think it necessary to premise a few cursory remarks on the mode of life of those amongst whom it originated, for some time before the appearance of the disease. " I suppose there are but few individuals in the United States who have not at least heard of the unparalleled blaze of enthusiastic religion which burst forth in the western country, about the year 1800 ; but it is, perhaps, impossible to have a competent idea of its effects, without personal observation. This religious enthusiasm travelled like elec- tricity, with astonishing velocity, and was felt, almost instantaneously, in every part of the states of Tennessee and Kentucky. It often proved so powerful a stimulus, that every other entirely lost its effect, or was but feebly felt. Hence that general neglect of earthly things, which was observed, and the almost perpetual attendance at places of public worship. Their churches are, in general, small and every way uncom- fortable ; the concourse of people, on days of worship, particularly of extraordinary meetings, was very numerous, and hundreds who lived at too great a distance to return home every evening, came supplied with provisions, tents, &c, for their sustenance and accommodation, during the continuance of the meeting, which commonly lasted from three to five days. They, as well as many others, remained on the spot day and night, the whole or greater part of this time, worshipping their Maker almost incessantly. The outward expressions of their worship consisted chiefly in alternate crying, laughing, singing, and shouting, and, at the same time, performing that variety of gesticulation, which the muscular system is capable of producing. It was under these circumstances that some found themselves unable, by voluntary efforts, to suppress the contraction of their muscles ; and, to their own astonishment, and the diversion of many of the spectators, they continued to act from necessity, the curious character which they had commenced from choice. 152 THE DANCING MANIA. " The disease no sooner appeared, than it spread with rapidity through the medium of the principle of imitation ; thus it was not uncommon for an affected person to communicate it to the greater part of a crowd, who, from curiosity or other motives, had collected arouud him. It is at this time in almost every part of Tennessee and Kentucky, and in various parts of Virginia, hut is said not to he contagious (or readily commu- nicated), as at its commencement. It attacks both sexes, and every con- stitution, hut evidently more readily those who are enthusiasts in reli- gion, such as those above described, and females ; children of six years of age, and adults of sixty, have been known to have it, but a great majority of those affected are from fifteen to twenty-five. The muscles generally affected are those of the trunk, particularly of the neck, sometimes those of the superior extremities, but very rarely, if ever, those of the inferior. The contractions are sudden and violent, such as are denominated con- vulsive, being sometimes so powerful, when in the muscles of the back, that the patient is thrown on the ground, where for some time his mo- tions more resemble those of a live fish when thrown on land, than any- thing else to which I can compare them. " This, however, does not often occur, and never, I believe, except at the commencement of the disease. The patients, in general, are capable of standing and ^walking, and many, after it has continued a short time, can attend to their business, provided it is not of a nature requiring much steadiness of body. They are incapable of conversing with any degree of satisfaction to themselves or company, being continually in- terrupted by those irregular contractions of their muscles, each causing a grunt, or forcible expiration ; but the organs of speech do not appear to be affected, nor has it the least influence on the mind. They have no command over their actions by any effort of volition, nor does their lying in bed prevent them, but they always cease during sleep. This disease has remissions and exacerbations, which, however, observe no regularity in their occurrence or duration. During the intermission a paroxysm is often excited at the sight of a person affected, but more fre- quently by the common salute of shaking hands. The sensations of the patients in a paroxysm are generally agreeable, which the enthusiastic class often endeavour to express, by laughing, shouting, dancing, &c. " Fatigue is almost always complained of after violent paroxysms, and sometimes a general soreness is experienced. The heart and arte- ries appear to be no further affected by the disease, than what arises from the exercise of the body ; nor does any change take place in any of the secretions or excretions. It has not proved mortal in a single in- stance within my knowledge, but becomes lighter by degrees, and finally disappears. In some cases, however, of long continuance,, it is attended with some degree of melancholia, which seems to arise en- tirely from the patient's reflections, and not directly from the disease. " The state of the atmosphere has no influence over it, as it rages APPENDIX. 153 with equal violence in summer and in winter ; in moist and in dry air." In the above examples, nervous disorders, bearing a strong resem- blance to those of the middle ages, are shown to exist in an epidemic form, both in Europe and America, at the present time ; but in these instances some general cause of mental excitement — and none is more powerful than religious enthusiasm — seems to have been requisite for their propagation. Their appearance, however, in single cases, is occa- sionally independent of any such origin, which leads to a belief, not without support in the experiments of modern physiologists, that they occasionally proceed from physical causes, and that it is therefore not necessary to consider them in all cases as the offspring of a disordered imagination. A well-marked case of a disease approximating to the original Dancing Mania, is related by Mr. Kinder Wood, in the 7th volume of the Me- dico-Chirurgical Transactions, p. 237. The patient, a young married woman, is described to have suffered from headache and sickness, to- gether with involuntary motions of the eyelids, and most extraordinary contortions of the trunk and extremities, for several days, when the more remarkable symptoms began to manifest themselves, which are thus recorded : — " February 26. Slight motions of the limbs came on in bed. She arose at nine o'clock, after which they increased, and became unusually severe. She was hurled from side to side of the couch-chair upon which she sat, for a considerable time, without intermission ; was sometimes instantaneously and forcibly thrown upon her feet, when she jumped and stamped violently. She had headache ; the eyelids were frequently affected, and she had often a sudden propensity to spring or leap up- wards. The affection ceased about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the patient being very much fatigued ; but it returned about noon, and a third time in the afternoon, when she was impelled into every corner of the room, and began to strike the furniture and doors violently with the hand, as she passed near them, the sound of which afforded her great satisfaction. The fourth attack was at night ; was very violent, and ended with sickness and vomiting. She went to bed at half-past eleven. Her nights were invariably good. The last three attacks were more vio- lent than the former ones, but they continued only half an hour each. "February 27. The attack commenced in bed, and was violent, but of short duration. When she arose about ten, she had a second attack, continuing an hour, except an interval of five minutes. She now struck the furniture more violently and more repeatedly. Kneeling on one knee, with the hands upon the back, she often sprang up suddenly and struck the top of the room with the palm of the hand. To do this, she rose fifteen inches from the floor, so that the family were under the ne- cessity of drawing all the nails and hooks from the ceiling. She fre- 154 THE DANCING MANIA. quently danced upon one leg, holding the other with the hand, and occasionally changing the legs. In the evening, the family observed the blows upon the furniture to be more continuous, and to assume the regular time and measure of a musical air. As a strain or series of strokes was concluded, she ended with a more violent stroke or a more violent spring or jump. Several of her friends also at this time noticed the regular measure of the strokes, and the greater regularity the disease was assuming ; the motions being evidently aifected, or in some measure modified, by the strokes upon the surrounding bodies. She chiefly struck a small slender door, the top of a chest of drawers, the clock, a table, or a wooden screen placed near the door. The affection ceased about nine o'clock, when the patient went to bed. " February 28. She arose very well at eight. At half-past nine the motions recommenced ; they were now of a more pleasant nature ; the involuntary actions, instead of possessing their former irregularity and violence, being changed into a measured step over the room, connected with an air, or series of strokes, and she beat upon the adjacent bodies as she passed them. In the commencement of the attack, the lips moved as if words were articulated, but no sound could be distinguished at this period. It was curious indeed to observe the patient at this time, moving around the room with all the vivacity of the country dance, or the graver step of the minuet, the arms frequently carried, not merely with ease, but with elegance. Occasionally all the steps were so di- rected as to place the foot constantly where the stone flags joined to form the floor, particularly when she looked downwards. When she looked upwards, there was an irresistible impulse to spring up to touch little spots or holes in the top of the ceiling ; when she looked around, she had a similar propensity to dart the forefinger into little holes in the furniture, &c. One hole in the wooden screen received the point of the forefinger many hundred times, which was suddenly and involuntarily darted into it with an amazing rapidity and precision. There was one particular part of the wall to which she frequently danced, and there, placing herself with the back to it, stood two or three minutes. This by the family was called ' the measuring place.'' " In the afternoon the motions returned, and proceeded much as in the morning. At this time a person present, surprised at the manner in which she beat upon the doors, &c, and thinking he recognised the air, without further ceremony began to sing the tune ; the moment this struck her ears, she turned suddenly to the man, and dancing directly up to him, continued doing so till he was out of breath. The man now ceased a short time, when commencing again, he continued till the at- tack stopped. The night before this, her father had mentioned his wish to procure a drum, associating this dance of his daughter with some ideas of music. The avidity with which she danced to the tune when sung as above stated, confirmed this wish, and accordingly a drum and APPENDIX. 155 fife were procured in the evening. After two hours of rest, the motions again reappeared, when the drum and fife began to play the air to which she had danced before, viz. the ' Protestant Boys,' a favourite popular air in this neighbourhood. In whatever part of the room she happened to be, she immediately turned and danced up to the drum, and as close as possible to it, and there she danced till she missed the step, when the involuntary motions instantly ceased. The first time she missed the step in five minutes ; but again rose, and danced to the drum two mi- nutes and a half by her father's watch, when, missing the step, the mo- tions instantly ceased. She rose a third time, and missing the step in half a minute, the motions immediately ceased. After this, the drum and fife commenced as the involuntary actions were coming on, and be- fore she rose from her seat ; and four times they completely checked the progress of the attack, so that she did not rise upon the floor to dance. At this period the affection ceased for the evening. "March 1. She arose very well at half-past seven. Upon my visit this morning, the circumstances of the preceding afternoon being stated, it appeared clear to me that the attacks had been shortened. Slow as I had seen the effects of medicine in the comparatively trifling disease of young females, I was very willing that the family should pursue the experiment, whilst the medical means were continued. " As I wished to see the effect of the instrument over the disease, I was sent for at noon, when I found her dancing to the drum, which she continued to do for half an hour without missing the step, owing to the slowness of the movement. As I sat counting the pulse, which I found to be 120, in the short intervals of an attack, I noticed motions of the lips, previous to the commencement of the dance, and placing my ear near the mouth I distinguished a tune. After the attack, of which this was the beginning, she informed me, in answer to my inquiry, that there always was a tune dwelling upon her mind, which at times be- coming more pressing, irresistibly impelled her to commence the in- voluntary motions. The motions ceased at four o'clock. " At half-past seven the motions commenced again, when I was sent for. There were two drummers present, and an unbraced drum was beaten till the other was braced. She danced regularly to the unbraced drum, but the moment the other commenced she instautly ceased. As missing the time stopped the affections, I wished the measure to be changed during the dance, which stopped the attack. It also ceased upon increasing the rapidity of the beat, till she could no longer keep time; and it was truly surprising to see the rapidity and violence of the muscular exertion, in order to keep time with the increasing movement of the instrument. Five times I saw her sit down the same evening, at the instant that she was unable to keep the measure ; and in conse- quence of this I desired the drummers to beat one continued roll, in- stead of a regular movement. She arose and danced five minutes, when 156 THE DANCING MANIA. both drums beat a continued roll : the motions instantly stopped, and the patient sat down. In a few minutes the motions commencing again, she was suffered to dance five minutes, when the drums again began to roll, the effect of which was instantaneous ; the motions ceased, and the pa- tient sat down. In a few minutes the same was repeated with the same effect. It appeared certain that the attacks could now be stopped in an instant, and I was desirous of arresting them entirely, and breaking the chain of irregular associations which constituted the disease. As the motions at this period always commenced in the fingers, and propagated themselves along the upper extremities to the trunk, I desired the drum- mers, when the patient arose to dance, to watch the commencement of the attack, and roll the drums before she arose from the chair. Six times successively the patient was hindered from rising, by attending to the commencement of the affection ; and before leaving the house, I de- sired the family to attend to the commencement of the attacks, and use the drum early. " March 2. She arose at seven o'clock, and the motions commenced at ten ; she danced twice before the drummer was prepared, after which she attempted to dance again four several times ; but one roll of a well- braced drum hindered the patient from leaving her seat, after which the attacks did not recur. She was left weakly and fatigued by the disease, but with a good appetite. In the evening of this day an eruption ap- peared, particularly about the elbows, in diffused patches of a bright red colour, which went off on the third day." Other cases might be adduced (see 23rd vol. of the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, p. 261 ; 31st vol. of ditto, p. 299 ; 5th vol. of the Medico- Chirurgical Transactions, pp. 1 to 23, &c), but as there is none more striking than this, they would unnecessarily swell this number of the Appendix, which has already extended to an undue length. VI. MUSIC FOR THE DANCE OF THE TARANTATI, FKOM ATIIAN. KIRCH KR. Magness. de Arte magnetica. Horn. 1654. foh p. 591. — Repeated in Sam. Hafenreffer, Nbsodochium, in quo cutis affectus traduntur. Ulm. 1660. Svo.p. 485. I. Primus modus Tarantella. ■-f •A ( * r* - -yj — i — . t p. ^=feM ^-*— W=±^ _1 — ^L_ -tJ=SL- 1 ' q : r V i i • i* "• (* r i j i • • i # i ' -# — # m Si 0; re - pli - ca piu volte. m II. Secundus modus. T, r i fc £ ^«— #^ eE E^S — 4 m- 158 THE DANCING MANIA. \ ( » U^- Si re - pli - ca piu i-olte. Ig_ III. Tertius modus. ±—t-t — P— t P T 9 ^F ±± = £z *—^4 Si m E .«►_ ft -£-tfc I re - pli - ca pid volte. 0: IV. Antidotum Tarantula;. fe SE -S 1 - s =?= -»- ^L A *- -e>- =?= i =* . j> \ ^ i -*- * i — *. -©- : <9- £ E=f=Z=r re pli ca £ £2: piti 3 volte. — 0— Ritornello. r * . ; -* *=g: g ^^b^S B^ =^^ 3=^ # • •- VII. Tbwo hypodorio. b ^5 ^3 -^ g g : jSl r) ° z ae ,:' -8- " (€ zzz=p: -e>- — © ©- APPENDIX. 161 -&- Z22: # a — . — ^- i -&- -&- -&- -&- 3 -Q fS> - G>- -i9- -&— '- -&- m -&- o V r*—f-r¥-^ -&- eEE -e &- -G- -&- -&- s \ -Q- _<2_ -&- Z2I -e- -g> & — -&- \ \ :£ -£T BM> *- -& e- -e g- -e &- -o 11 162 THE DANCING MANIA. J2 P- - 4 p ' m -i5>- OH £ — <^ -©- -<9- VIII. ^/»« clausula. =t >(', "T 3=E « * * ^ ei se -* - ' ^— r- p=j» r i> i-ig "I F -^ — * — g- -s>- ^^f '"b ^ z± ■■d- ^ ^P F^=i-y — &- -&- ip O - THE SWEATING SICKNESS. 11 * PREFACE. The present work is a continuation of my treatises on collateral subjects, and, like them, maintains the opinion, that great epi- demics are epochs of development, wherein the mental energies of mankind are exerted in every direction. The history of the world bears indisputable testimony to this fact. The tendencies of the mind, the turn of thought of whole ages, have frequently depended on prevailing diseases ; for nothing exercises a more potent influ- ence over man, either in disposing him to calmness and submission, or in kindling in him the wildest passions, than the proximity of inevitable and universal danger. Often have infatuation and fanaticism, hatred and revenge, engendered by an overwhelming fear of death, spread fire and flames throughout the world. Famine and diseases, among which may be instanced the fiery plague of St. Anthony, were no less powerful in calling forth the chivalrous spirit of the crusades than the enthusiastic eloquence of Peter the Hermit — the Black Death brought thousands to the stake, and aroused the fearful penances of the Flagellants — while the oriental leprosy cast a gloomy shade over society throughout the whole course of the middle ages. With all such commotions, the most striking events of the world are in intimate relation, and unquestionably, amid the changing forms of existence in the human race, more has always depended on the prevailing tone of thought than on the rude powers by which those events were produced. The historian, therefore, who would investigate the hidden influence of mind, cannot dispense with medical research. The facts themselves con- vince him of the organic union of the corporeal and the spiritual in all human affairs, and consequently of the innate vital con- nexion of all human knowledge. Hence, in a medical point of view, how vast is the field for observation presented by the history PREFACE. 1G5 of popular diseases. Present bodily sufferings x are, collectively, but a step in the development, — but one phase of morbid life amid a long series of phenomena, and hence are not fully under- stood without a previous knowledge of the past, and historical research. How can we recognise the ring of Saturn as such, so long as our axis of vision is in its plane, and we see it only as a line. Great pestilences have vanished or been dispersed ; from causes apparently the most insignificant, the most important con- sequences have resulted, and throughout the vicissitudes of danger and devastation, the operations of mighty laws of nature are every- where manifested in the social tendencies of entire centuries. This is no aerial realm of transitory conjectures — facts them- selves speak in a thousand reminiscences. If we do but investigate the past with unprejudiced assiduity — if we do but consider even the few successful researches which have hitherto been made in historical pathology (perhaps those who are kindly disposed will recognise even mine), we shall not fail to arrive at a centre of reality, which the healing art, to its great detriment, has hitherto been far from reaching, whilst it has occasionally penetrated into a less fertile soil, or even encumbered itself with the accumulated rubbish of the pedantic dogmas of the schools. The state, which founds its legislation on a knowledge of realities, which expects from the physical sciences information respecting human life collectively, considered in all its relations, has a right to demand from its physicians a general insight into the nature and causes of popular diseases. Such an insight, how- ever, as is worthy the dignity of a science, cannot be obtained by the observation of isolated epidemics, because nature never in any one of them displays herself in all her bearings, nor brings into action, at one time, more than a few of the laws of general disease. One generation, however rich it may be in stores of important knowledge, is never adequate to establish, on the foundation of actually observed phenomena, a doctrine of popular diseases worthy of the name. The experience of all ages is the source whence we must in this case draw, and medical investigation is the only road which leads to this source, unless, indeed, we would be unprepared to meet new epidemics, and would maintain the unfounded opinion that medical science, as it now exists, is the full result of all pre- ceding efforts. 1 The author seems to me here to allude to what Sydenham calls the " constitute epidemica," as if he would say, " The epidemic constitution, as it exists at any one time, i< hut a step," &C. 166 PREFACE. An insight, not only into general visitations of disease, which in the course of ages have appeared in divers forms, but also into every single disease, whether it occurs in intimate connexion with others or not, is rendered more distinct by a knowledge of the contemporary circumstances which attend its development. I would fain hope, therefore, that the future research and diligence of physicians, devoted to the pursuit of truth and science, will be more generally directed to historical investigation ; and that universities and academies will concede to it that prominent place which, from its high importance as an extensive branch of natural philosophy, it justly demands. Whether the following inquiry into one of the most remarkable diseases on record corresponds with these views, I must leave my readers to judge. The historian will discern what social feelings are produced among nations by great events, and to the physician a picture of suffering will be unveiled, to which the diseases of the present time afford no parallel. I have throughout kept in view the spirit and the dignity of the sixteenth century, which was as remarkable for military triumphs as for tragic events ; and I look with confidence for the same indulgence and goodwill now, which, through the kindness of friends, I have already enjoyed both at home and abroad, in a higher degree than my sincere gratitude can find words to express. THE SWEATING SICKNESS. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST VISITATION OF THE DISEASE. — 1485. " Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully, God and Saint George! Richmond and victory ! "— Siiakspeare. Sect. 1. — Eruption. After the fate of England had been decided by the battle of Bosworth, on the 22nd of August, 1485, 1 the joy of the nation was clouded by a mortal disease which thinned the ranks of the war- riors, and following in the rear of Henry's victorious army, spread in a few weeks from the distant mountains of Wales to the me- ti'opolis of the empire. It was a violent inflammatory fever, which, after a short rigor, prostrated the powers as with a blow ; and amidst painful oppression at the stomach, head-ache, and lethargic stupor, suffused the whole body with a fetid perspiration. All this took place in the course of a few hours, and the crisis was always over within the space of a day and night. 2 The internal heat which the patient suffered was intolerable, yet every refriger- ant was certain death. The people were seized with consterna- tion when they saw that scarcely one in a hundred escaped, 3 and their first impression was that a reign commencing with such horrors would doubtless prove most inauspicious. 4 1 Grafton, Vol. II. pp. 147. 155. 2 Hall, p. 425. 3 For suddenlie a deadlie burning sweat so assailed their bodies and distempered their blood with a most ardent heat, that scarce one amongst an hundred that sickened did escape with life ; for all in maner as soone as the sweat tooke them, or within a short time after, ycelded the ghost. Ilolinshed, Vol. III. p. 482. Godwin, p. 98. Poli/dor. Vergilius, L. XXVI. p. 5G7. Wood, T. I. A. 1485. p. 233. Wood takes his testimony respecting the symptoms of the disease at third hand from Carol. I"«- lesius (Cap. XIV. p. 226), a French physician at Rome, about 1650, who employs P. Foreest's words. This last author, however, did not himself observe the English sweating sickness. 4 Bacon, p. 36. 168 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. At first the new foe was scarcely heeded ; citizens and peasants went in joyful processions to meet the victorious army. Henry's march from Bosworth towards London resembled a triumph, which was everywhere celebrated by festivals ; for the nation, after its many years of civil war, looked forward to happier days than they had enjoyed under the blood-thirsty Richard. Very shortly, however, after the king's entry into the capital on the 28th of August, 1 the Sweating Sickness, 2 as the disease was called, began to spread its ravages among the densely peo- pled streets of the city. Two lord mayors and six aldermen died within one week, 3 having scarcely laid aside their festive robes ; many who had been in perfect health at night, were on the fol- lowing morning numbered among the dead. The disease for the most part marked for its victims robust and vigorous men ; and as many noble families lost their chiefs, extensive commercial houses their principals, and wards their guardians, the festivities were soon converted into grief and mourning. The coronation of the king, which was expected to overcome the scruples that many entertained of his right to the throne, was of necessity postponed in this general distress, 4 and the disease, in the mean time, spread without interruption and over the whole kingdom from east to west. 5 It is agreed that the pestilence did not commence till the very beginning of August, 1485, and was in obvious connexion with the circumstances of the times. To return to their native country had long been the ardent desire of the Earl of Richmond and his faithful followers. At the age of 15 (1471), having escaped the vengeance of the House of York, and the assassins of Edward, he was overtaken by a storm, and fell into the hands of Francis II., Duke of Bretagne, who long detained him prisoner, but on the death of Edward, in 1483, supplied him with means to enforce his claims to the English throne, as the last descendant of the House of Lancaster. This first undertaking miscarried. A storm drove back the bold adventurer to Dieppe, and compelled him once more to throw himself, with his five hundred English fol- lowers, on the hospitality of Duke Francis. Richard's influence with the Duke, however, rendered his stay there somewhat dangerous. Richmond withdrew privately, and endeavoured to 1 Fabian, p. 673. 2 Swetynge sykenesse in the Chronicles. 3 The Mayors' names were Thomas Hylle and William Rocker. Fabian, loc. cit. 4 Until the 30th of October. Grafton, p. 158. 5 Wood, loc. cit. ERUPTION. 1 69 gain over to his cause Charles VIII., who was yet a minor. A small subsidy of French troops, some pieces of artillery, and an adequate supply of money, were finally granted to his repeated solicitations. This little band was quickly augmented to 2000 men, who were all embarked, and on the 25th of July, 1485, they weighed anchor at Havre, and seven days after, the standard of Richmond was raised in Milford Haven. 1 They landed at the village of Dale, on the west side of the har- bour, and on the evening of their arrival, or very early on the fol- lowing morning, Richmond hastened to Haverfordwest, where no messenger had yet announced the renewal of the civil war. It appears that he reached Cardigan, on the northern shore, on the 3rd of August, and for the first time granted to his small but in- creasing army the repose of an encampment. After a short halt he set forward with confidence, crossed the Severn at Shrewsbury, 2 turned from thence to Newport and Staf- ford, and pitched his camp at Litchfield, probably before the 18th of August. 3 The distance to this place from Milford Haven is 170 miles, and the road leads over wooded mountains and culti- vated fields without touching upon any swampy lands. Litchfield, however, lies low, and it was here that the army encamped in a damp situation, till it broke up for the neighbouring field of Bos- worth. Thither Richmond, with scarcely 5000 men, and having his right wing covered by a morass, went to meet his deadly foe, whose army doubled his own. The combat was at first furious, but in two hours Lord Stanley crowned the conqueror with Richard's diadem. 4 All these events so rapidly succeeded each other in the course of three weeks, that the knights and soldiers of Richmond, more and more excited every day by fear and hope, were scarcely equal to such exertions. Yet the very rapidity of the movements of the army was the cause why the disease could not spread so quickly, nor obstruct the final decision of Bosworth, although the report of it had already, before this event, spread universal terror ; so that Lord Stanley, when authoritatively summoned by Richard 1 Phil, de Comines, Tom. I. p. 344. Compare the English chronicles quoted. The history of Croyland Abbey states that the 1st of August was the day of Richmond's arrival at Milford Haven. There exists no reason for departing from this statement with some modern writers, namely, Kay du Chesne,y. 119'2, Lilie, p. 382, and J/ar- solier, who assert the landing of the army to have taken place on the 7th of August. Historia Croylandensis, p. 573, in Jo. Fell. 2 Grafton, p. 147. 3 Stow, p. 779. * According to the unanimous statements of the chroniclers. 170 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. to repair to his standard, sought to gain time, and, by way of ex- cuse, alleged the prevalence of the new disease. 1 After the victory of Bosworth, King Henry remained two days in Leicester, and then without further delay hastened to London, which he reached in less than four days, unaccompanied by mili- tary parade, and attended only by a select body of followers. The remainder of his army, which stood greatly in need of repose after its severe toils, were not in a condition for marching, they there- fore halted in the neighbouring towns, and were probably dis- banded, according to the custom of the age. 2 The Sweating Sickness is said not to have made its appearance in London till the 21st of September, 3 but historians have most likely intended by that day to mark the commencement of its virulence, which continued to the end of the following month, and lasted, therefore, in all, about five weeks. During this short period a large portion of the population 4 fell victims to the new epidemic, and the lamentation was without bounds so long as the people were ignorant that this fearful dis- ease, unable to establish its dominion, would only pass through the country like a flash of lightning, and then again give place to the active intercourse of society and the cheering hope of life. There was no security against a second attack ; for many who had recovered were seized by it, with equal violence, a second, and sometimes a third time, so that they had not even the slender consolation enjoyed by sufferers in the plague 5 and small-pox, of entire immunity after having once surmounted the danger. 6 Thus by the end of the year the disease had spread over the whole of England, and visited every place with the same severity as the metropolis. Many persons of rank, of the ecclesiastical 1 Histor. Croylandens. p. 573. Fell. 2 Bacon, p. 7. Marsolier, p. 142. Yet in the Autumn of that same year Henry established, what no prior king of England ever had, 'a body-guard. It consisted of only 50 " Yomen of the Crowne," to each of whom there were appointed two men on foot — an archer and a demi-lance, and a groom to attend to his three horses. The first commander of this body-guard, which formed the most ancient stock whence sprang the English standing army, was Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex. Herbert of Cherbury, p. 9. Grafton, and the other chroniclers, loc. cit. Baker, p. 254. 3 Bacon, Stow, Baker, loc. cit. Rapin considered the middle of September as the period of the outbreak. T. IV. p. 38G. 4 "Infinite persons." Bacon. "A wonderful number." Stow. "Many thou- sands." Baker, loc. cit. 5 The plague can scarcely be said to furnish this immunity, for though the second attack is an exception to a pretty general rule, it is one of by no means unfrequent oc- currence. — Transl. note. c Holinshed, Vol. III. p. 482. THE PHYSICIANS. 171 and the civil classes, became its victims ; and great was the con- sternation when, in the month of August, it broke out in Oxford. Professors and students fled in all directions ; but death overtook many of them, and this celebrated university was deserted for six weeks. l Three months later it appeared at Croyland, and on the 14th of November, carried off Lambert Fossedyke, abbot of the monastery. 2 No authentic accounts from other quarters have been handed down to our times, but we may infer, from the general grief and anxiety which prevailed, that the loss of human life was very considerable. Sect. 2. — The Physicians. The physicians could do little or nothing for the people in this extremity. 3 They are nowhere alluded to throughout this epi- demic, and even those who might have come forward to succour their fellow-citizens, had fallen into the errors of Galen, and their dialectic minds sank under this appalling phenomenon. This holds good even of the famous Thomas Linacre, subsequently physician in ordinary to two monarchs, 4 and founder of the College of Physicians, in 1518. In the prime of his youth he had been an eye-witness of the events at Oxford, and survived even the second and third eruption of the Sweating Sickness ; but in none of his writings do we find a single word respecting this disease, which is of such permanent importance. In fact, the restorers of the medi- cal science of ancient Greece, who were followed by all the most enlightened men in Europe, with the single exception of Linacre, occupied themselves rather with the ancient terms of art than with actual observation, and in their critical researches overlook- ed the important events that were passing before their eyes. 5 This reminds us of the later Greek physicians, who for four hundred 1 Wood, p. 233. 2 Histor. Croyland. p. 569. FeU. 3 No physick afforded any cure. Baker, p. 254. 4 Henry VII., and Henry VI IT. Compare the excellent biographical account of this learned man by Aikin. 5 Erasmus expresses him>elf on this subject in hi3 usual manner. He was on terms of strict friendship with Linacre, whom on other occasions he greatly lauds. This, however, does not prevent him from lashing him with his satire a.s a philological pe- dant. " Novi quendam 7ro\urExv6raroi>, grrccum, latinum, mathematicum, philoso- phum, medicum, Kai rubra fiatnXiicov, jam scxagenarium (he was born in 1460, and died in 1524), qui ceteris rebus omissis, annis plus viginti se torquct ac discruciat in grammatica, prorsus felicem se fore ratus, sitamdiu liceat vivere, donee certo statiuit, quomodo distinguenda sint octo partes orationis, quod hactenus nemo Gracorum aut Latinorum ad plenum prrcstare valuit." Laus Stultitiae, p. 200. That I. inane is here meant is quite plain ; the passage applies to no other contemporary. 172 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. years paid no attention to the small-pox, because they could find no description of it in the immortal works of Galen. 1 No resource was therefore left to the terrified people of Eng- land but their own good sense, and this led them to the adoption of a plan of treatment, than which no physician in the world could have given them a better ; namely, not to resort to any violent medicines, but to apply moderate heat, to abstain from food, taking only a -small quantity of mild drink, and quietly to wait for four-and-twenty hours the crisis of this formidable malady. Those who were attacked during the day, in order to avoid any chill, immediately went to bed in their clothes, and those who sickened by night did not rise from their beds in the morning ; while all carefully avoided exposing to the air even a hand or foot. Thus they anxiously guarded against heat or cold, so as not to excite perspiration by the former, nor to check it by the latter f or they well knew that either was certain death. 2 The report of the infallibility of this method soon spread over the whole kingdom, and thus towards the commencement of 1486, many were rescued from death. On New Year's Day, a violent tempest arose in the south-east, and by purifying the atmosphere relieved the oppression under which the people laboured, and thus, to the joy of the whole nation, the epidemic was swept away with- out leaving a trace behind. 3 Sect. 3. — Causes. It was thought remarkable, even at that time, that the Sweat- ing Sickness did not extend beyond the limits of England, and that, remaining the unenviable property of that nation, it did not even spread to Scotland, Ireland, or Calais, which belonged to Britain. Much, doubtless, was owing to the peculiarity of the climate, more still to atmospherical changes, and something also to the habits of the people and the circumstances of the times. It plainly appeared in the sequel that the English Sweating Sickness was a spirit of the mist, which hovered amid the dark clouds. Even in ordinary years, the atmosphere of England is loaded with these clouds during considerable periods, and in damp seasons they would prove the more injurious to health, as the English of those times were not accustomed to cleanliness, modera- o 1 See the author's History of Medicine, Book II. p. 311. 2 Grafton, p. 161, and the other chroniclers. 3 Wood, loc. cit. CAUSES. 173 tion in their diet, or even comfortable refinements. Gluttony- was common among the nobility as well as among the lower classes ; all were immoderately addicted to drinking, 1 and the manners of the age sanctioned this excess at their banquets and their festivities. If we consider that the disease mostly attacked strong and robust men — that portion of the people who abandon- ed themselves without restraint to all the pleasures of the table — while women, old men, and children, almost entirely escaped, it is obvious that a gross indulgence of the appetite must have had a considerable share in the production of this unparalleled plague. To this may be added, the humidity of the year 1485, which is represented by most chronicles as very remarkable. 2 Through- out the whole of Europe the rain fell in torrents, and inunda- tions were frequent. Damp weather is not prejudicial to health if it be merely temporary, but if the rain be excessive for a series of years, so that the ground is completely saturated, and the mists attract baneful exhalations out of the earth, man must necessarily suffer from the noxious state of the soil and atmosphere. Under these circumstances epidemics must inevitably follow. The five preceding years had been unusually wet, 3 1485 proved equally so ; the last hot and droughty summer was that of 1479. 4 Extensive inundations of the Tiber, the Po, the Danube, the Rhine, and most of the other great rivers, took place in 1480, and were at- tended with the usual consequences, the deterioration of the air, misery, and disease. 5 The greatest inundation ever remembered in England was that of the Severn, in October, 1483. It was long afterwards called the Duke of Buckingham's Great Water, because it frustrated the rebellion of this powerful subject against Richard III., whom he had been instrumental in placing upon the throne ; and consequently defeated also the first enter- prise of Henry VII. It lasted full ten days, and the tremend- ous ravages occasioned by the overwhelming torrent dwelt long in the memory of the people. 1 The luscious Greek wines were at this time the most in vogue, especially Cretan wine, Malmsey, and Muschat. Lemnius, de compl. L. II. fol. 111. h. Beusner, p. 70. 2 Werlich, p. 2 18. 3 Spangenberg, Mansf. Chr. fol. 395. f. i Werlich, p. 236. Spangenberg, loc. cit. Ovcrilow of the Lech, 1484. Werlich, p. 239. 5 Franck von Word, fol. 211. a. 6 Grafton, p. 133, and all the other chroniclers. Short, Vol. I. p. 201, and several others, even Sehnurrer, erroneously asserted this inundation to have taken place in the year 1485. 174 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. Sect. 4. — Other Epidemics. During the whole of this period the nations of Europe were visited with various and destructive plagues. In 1477, the Bubo- plague broke out in Italy, and raged without interruption till 1485. 1 It was accompanied by striking natural phenomena, among which we may reckon an enormous flight of locusts in 1478 " and 1482, and remarkable intercurrent diseases, such as inflammatory pain in the side, throughout the whole of Italy in 1482. 3 In Switzerland and Southern Germany malignant epidemics 4 appeared in the train of drought and famine in 1480 and 1481, while putrid fever accompanied by phrenites, 5 prevail- ed in Westphalia, Hesse, and Friesland. There had never been in the memory of the inhabitants of these districts so many ignes fatui as during this period. There too the people suffered from the failure of the harvest, so that it was necessary to obtain supplies from Thuringen. 6 France, where, under the fearful reign of Louis XI., oppression and misery seemed to mock the gifts of heaven, became in 1482, after a two years' scarcity, the scene of a devastating plague. It was an inflammatory fever with delirium, accompanied by such intense pain in the head that many dashed out their brains against the wall, or rushed into the water ; while others, after incessantly running to and fro, died in a state of the greatest agony. According to the notion of the age, this disease was attributed to astral influences, for it could not have been brought on only by famine, which left to the poor peasantry, south of the Loire, nothing but the roots of wild herbs to support their miserable existence, 7 since the higher classes were also frequently attacked. 8 This fever was without doubt accompanied 1 Campo, p. 132. I'fetifer, p. 32. 2 Franckv. Word, fol. 211. a. In the plague which followed, about 20,000 people died in Brixen, and 30,000 in Venice. 3 Fracastor. p. 182. Morb. Contag. L. II. * Wurstisen, p. 474. cap. 15. Fracastor. p. 136. Spangenberg (Pestilentz) calls this Epidemic of 1482, which spread all over Germany, Switzerland, and France, "das phrenitische, schwerhitzig Pcstilentzjieber," the phrenitic, intensely ardent, plague-fever. Compare Slumpjf. fol. 742. b. 5 The so called Hauptkrankheit. e Spangenberg, Mansfeld. Chr. fol. 396. a. 7 In many places women and children were obliged to draw the plough, from the want of draught cattle ; they were obliged too to carry on the cultivation by night, that they might not be observed by the king's inhuman revenue officers. — Mezeray, Tom. II. p. 750. 8 "II couroit alors (1482) dans la France line dangcreuse et mortcllc maladie, qui affligcoit indiffcremment les grands et les petits, bicn qu'ellc nc fut pas contagieuse. Richmond's army. 175 by inflammation of the meninges, or even of the brain itself, and was, perhaps, identical with that which at the same period desolat- ed the north-west of Germany as far as the shores of the North Sea, only that it was heightened by the greater natural vivacity and m iserable situation of the French people, who were kept in a state of perpetual dread by the cruel executions of Louis. 1 This pesti- lence occasioned the king to follow the advice of his morose physician 2 in ordinary, and to keep himself closely confined with- in the town of Plessis des Tours. It was prohibited under a heavy penalty to speak in his presence of death which was car- rying off its victims in all directions, and forty crossbowmen kept guard in the fosse of the castle to put to death every living thing which might approach. 3 Two years after, in 1484, virulent dis- eases 4 again visited Germany and Switzerland ; and thus it seemed as if the nations were everywhere threatened with death and destruction. Sect. 5. — Richmond's Army. From these data, which might easily be extended, it is evident that the Sweating Sickness of 1485 did not make its appearance without great and general premisory events, which for a series of years imparted to the people of England a susceptibility to danger- ous and unusual diseases. If, besides this, we take into account the gloomy temperament of the English, and the general depres- sion of their spirits, in consequence of the sanguinary wars of the red and white roses, a series of events which seems to have shaken their faith in an overruling Providence, we may readily conceive that it would require but a very slight impulse to excite C'etoit une espeee defevre ckaude et frenetique, qui s'allumoit tout d'un coup dans le cerveau, et le briiloit avec de si cruelles douleurs, que les tins s'en cassoient la teste contre les murailles, les autres se precipitoient dans les puits, ou sc tuoient ;\ force dc courir ca et la. On en attribu la cause a quelque malignc influence des astres, et a la corruption, que la mauvaise nourriture de l'annee precedente avoit forme dans le corps; d'autant que les vins et les bleds n'ctant point venus a maturity, la disette avoit etc si grande, principalement dans les provinces de dela la Loire, que les peuples u'avoi- tntvecu que de racines et d'herbes." Mezeray, Topi. II. p. 746. 1 It is expressly affirmed by the historians that many of the higher classes were sleepless from the constant alarm and fear of Tristan's sword. How greatly muM such a condition have predisposed the mind to receive this destructive fever! - Jacques Cotier. He extorted from his patients 10,000 dollars a month, but, aftei his master's death, was obliged to refund to CharlesXIU. 100,000 dollars. Comines, L. VI. o. 12. p. 400. 3 Mezeray, loc. cit. 4 Spanr/enbcrg, Mansfeld. Chron. fol. 379. a. Festilentz, 14S3. » Compare Webster, T. I. p. 147. 176 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. a powerful commotion in the mysterious mechanism of the human body. This impulse was evidently given by the landing of Richmond's army in the very year when great and portentous evils were anticipated; for on the lGth of March, the same day when Queen Ann, the unfortunate wife of Richard III., expired, a total eclipse of the sun enveloped all Europe in darkness, and gave rise to gloomy prognostications. 1 Even under ordinary circumstances, wars begat pestilential disorders — how much more inevitably must these have risen in the then existing state of affairs ! Richmond's army consisted not of brave men animated by zeal to avenge their dishonoured country or to serve a good cause. It was composed of wandering freebooters, "vile landskneckte," as they were called in Germany, who assembled under his banner at Havre, — sharpshooters formed under Louis XL, who recklessly pillaged Normandy, and whom Charles VIII. gladly made over to Henry, in order to free his own peaceful territories from so great a scourge. 2 This army may not have been worse than others of the same period ; 3 but cooped up as they were for a whole week in dirty ships, they doubtless carried about with them all the material for germinating the seeds of a pestilential disorder, which broke out soon after on the banks of the Severn and in the camp at Litchfield. Sect. 6. — Nature of the Sweating Sickness. PEBLIMINABY INVESTIGATION. Before we proceed further, some account is here required of the nature of this disease. It was inflammatory rheumatic fever, with great disorder of the nervous system. This assumption is supported by the manner of its origin and its especial character- istic of being accompanied by a profuse and injurious perspiration. 1 Spangcnbcrg, Mansfeld. Chron. fol. 398. a., and many other chroniclers. The reader will have the goodness to observe, here and in similar places, that the text is not stating the opinion of the author, but the way in which these events were viewed in that age. 2 — II y avoit seulement en Xormandie quelque troupes de franc- archers, de ceux, que Louis XI. avoit lieenciez, qui couroit la campagne : et plusieurs faineants s'etant joints avec eux, ils detruisoient tout le pais, et on devoit meme craindre, que ce mal ne se communiquat aux provinces voisines. Mais il se presenta alors une belle occa- sion de delivrer la France de ces pillards . . . et lui donna (Charles VIII.) tout ces francs-archers et brigands do Normandie jusqu'au nombre de 3000. Mezcray, T. II. p. 762. 3 " La milice cstoit plus cruellc et plus desordonnec que jamais." So says Jfczcraig of the French soldiers in general. T. II. p. 7o0. NATURE OF THE SWEATING SICKNESS. 177 From the judgment that we are now capable of forming of the pernicious influences which prevailed in the year 1485, it may, without hesitation, be admitted that the humidity of that and of the preceding years affected the functions of the lungs and of the skin, and disturbed the relation of this very important tissue to the internal organs of life. This is the usual commencement of rheumatic fevers, which bear the same relation to the sweating sickness as slight symptoms bear to severe ones of the same kind. The predominance of affections of the brain and of the nerves however, gave to the English epidemic a peculiar character. The functions of the eighth pair of nerves were violently disordered in this disease, as was shown by oppressed respiration and extreme anxiety with nausea and vomiting, symptoms to which the moderns attach much importance. 1 The stupor and profound lethargy show that there was injury of the brain, to which, in all pro- bability, was added a stagnation of black blood in the torpid veins. We must also take into the account a previous corruption and decomposition of the blood, which, even if we should be disinclined to infer their existence from the offensive perspiration of the disease itself, were proved by striking phenomena of a simi- lar nature that occurred in Central Europe about the same time ; for the scurvy prevailed as an epidemic, more especially in Germany, in the year I486, and with such severe and unusual symptoms, that people were inclined to regard it as a totally new malady. 2 Now such is the vital connexion of different functions that every impediment to respiration, whether in consequence of pressure from without, or through spasm and irritation of the nerves from within, or even from a morbid condition of the cir- culating fluid, infallibly calls forth the compensating activity of the skin, and the body becomes suffused with an alleviating perspiration. Thus it plainly appears that the profuse perspiration in the disease of which we are treating, notwithstanding its apparently injurious tendency, was the result of a commotion excited on the part of the lungs, which was critical with respect to the disease itself; and this is in accordance with all the causes of which we still have any knowledge. Noxious and even stinking fogs penc- 1 Schiller, Sect. II. c. 1. p. 131. b. 2 Aiifjelus, p. 253. Spavgenberg, M. Chr. Pol. 398. b. Tin Bcurvy affected society far more in the 15th and 16th centuries than it docs at present, and made its appearance on several occasions as an epidemic. Compare, in particular, Reutner, whose work on the history of epidemics is one of general importance. Sennert, Wier, and others. 12 178 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. trated into the organs of respiration, and as the blood was thus so much affected in its composition and in its vitality that its corrupt state was only to be obviated by profuse perspiration, the inevitable consequence was an interference with the extensive functions of the eighth pair of nerves, which interference, as later writers relate, extended in many cases to the spinal marrow, and brought on violent convulsions. 1 We have here only one essen- tial cause, out of many, for this gigantic disease, and one too which accounts for its advance and spread. It is highly probable, for the reasons stated, and as according with all human experience, that it first broke out in the army of Henry the Yllth, and beyond all doubt that it spread from west to east, and afterwards in a retrograde course from east to west. With the perfectly equable operation of the predisposing causes, from which the diseases ought indubitably to have broken out all over England at the same time, had the condition of the atmosphere been its sole occasion, we must additionally presume a special cause for its progress through towns and villages. This, according to all ap- pearance, was to be found in the air, impregnated with foul odours, which surrounded the sick, and abounded in the tents and dwellings in which Henrj T the Vllth's soldiers, after various privations and hard service, amid storms and rain, were closely crowded together. Of both causes modern observation furnishes analogous examples. Intermittent fevers spread more easily in air which is contaminated by sick people, and bands of soldiers, themselves in perfect health, have not unfrequently conveyed camp fever to remote places. It signifies very little by what ex- pressions of the schools these occurrences are designated ; it is best perhaps to abstain from them altogether, for they are all in- adequate and occasion misconceptions. Contemporaries, however, were certainly justified in not admitting the notion of contagion in the same sense as when the term is applied to the plague, with which they were well acquainted. 2 For very frequently cases, which were not to be explained on the principle of contagion communicated by persons diseased, occurred among people of rank, and manifestly arose independently of the usual causes. In these cases the fear of death, which everywhere was the harbinger of the disease, and threw the nerves of the chest into spasmodic 1 Schiller, loc. cit. 2 It was conceived not to bee an epidemicke disease, but to proceed from a malig- nitic in tbe constitution of the aire, gathered by the predispositions of seasons : and the speedie cessation declared as much. Bacon, p. 9. MERCENARY TROOPS. 179 commotion, gave an impulse to the malady for which the quality of the atmosphere and luxury had long made preparation. Had this view of contempoi'aries been even less impartial than it really was, it would have found the most striking confirmation in the sudden cessation of the pestilence throughout the whole country. For the destructive spirits of air, which would not have been discerned even by the proud naturalists of the nineteenth cen- tur3 r , dispersed and vanished for half an age in the fury of the tempest which raged on the 1st of January, 1486. CHAPTER II. THE SECOND VISITATION OF THE DISEASE. — 1506. " The times were rough and full of mutations and rare incidents."— Bacon. Sect. 1. — Mercenary Troops. At the commencement of the sixteenth century, society was very differently constituted from what it was at the period when Henry the Vllth unfurled his banner for victory. The darkness of the micfaTe ages had receded, as at the approach of a sun still hidden behind a cloud. The mind unconsciously expanded in the unwonted light of day — the whole earth was on the eve of renova- tion — new energies were to be called into action — events more stupendous had never occurred, nor had more creative ideas ever aroused the spirit of man. The invention of Guttenberg burst through the bonds of mental darkness, and gave to freedom of thought imperishable wings ; unsuspected powers successively de- veloped themselves ; and, while in Western Europe an ardent desire arose boldly to overstep the ancient limits of human activity, the hopes of the more enlightened fell far short of the actual re- sult of such unexpected events. The discovery of the New World, and the circumnavigation of Africa, laid the foundation for great improvements ; yet the events in Central Europe, though less striking to contemporaries, were in their consequences infinitely more important and beneficial. The establishment of civil order among all the nations of the West took place at this period, which forms so important a boundary between the middle ages and mod- ern times. Regal power was fixed on a firm basis, and when the castles had fallen before the artillery of the princes and imperial cities, so that the petty feudal barons were compelled to swear T2 » 180 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. obedience to the laws, an end was put to the incessant predatory feuds which had so long desolated Europe, and the establish- ment of internal peace was followed by the security of life and property — the first essential of refinement in manners and of the free development of human society. This great result of a concatenation of circumstances was not, however, brought about without violent struggles and innovations, the effects of which were felt for centuries ; but it was probably the establishment of standi//;/ armies which had the greatest in- fluence on European civilization. They became indeed the pillars of civil order, but having proceeded immediately from the per- nicious mercenary system, they long nourished the seeds of unre- strained depravity, and transmitted to later generations the corruptions of the middle ages. The Lansquenets l (Landsknecte) of the emneror, and the mercenaries of the kincrs of France and England, who, during the war, had joined the smaller branches of the standing army, were homeless adventurers from every country in Europe, and were allured, not by military ambition, but solely by the prospect of booty. 2 In whatever country the drum beat to arms, thej^ flocked together like swarms of locusts — no one knew from whence — and defying the feeble restraints of military discipline, indulged, during the continuance of the war, in all the unbridled licence of a predatory life. Hence the unbounded barbarity of their mode of warfare, which was restrained only by the individual exertions of more humane commanders. There was, however, a decided contrariety between this system and the moral condition of the people of Western Eu- rope ; a contrariety which was never entirely removed by the sub- sequent introduction of a more strict military discipline, and which has been done away only in modern times, by the establish- ment of regular armies on a system more congenial to the feelings of the people. Hence the consequences were the more pernicious, for when the armies were disbanded on the conclusion of peace, the Landsknechts dispersed in all directions, not to follow the plough again, or to resume their former occupations, but to pass their time in idleness and dissipation, if enriched by booty, and if 1 The name passed into the French, English, and Italian languages — Lansquenet, Lancichinecho. 2 "flock together like flies in summer, so that any one would wonder where all these swarms have sprung from, and how they are maintained during the winter ; and truly they are such a miserable crew, that one ought rather to pity than envy the kind of life they lead and their precarious fortune." Franck's Chronicle. " On the destructive Lansquenets," fol. 217. h. NEW CIRCUMSTANCES. 181 reduced to poverty by intemperance and gambling, to infest the country as mendicants or robbers, till a new war again summoned them from their dishonourable mode of life. 1 Probably but very few were ever able to rise from such deep degradation, and many fell early victims to their vices, 2 while the infection of their ex- ample brought fresh accessions from every town and village to the mercenary legions. Sect. 2. — New Circumstances. It is evident that in such a condition of affairs, the effect which the plague produced on civil society must have been different from that of former times. Pernicious influences which, during the middle ages, had endangered the health of the inhabitants of towns, and had often rendered disorders, naturally slight, in the highest degree malignant, were for ever removed. Under this head may be mentioned more particular^ the ill-contrived con- struction of the houses and streets, which even yet, in large cities, destroys the comfort of the inhabitants of whole districts, and those not of the poorest class only. As people acquired confidence in the security of peace, it ceased to be necessary to protect every country town by fortifications. The walls were thrown down, the stagnant moats were filled up, and as people were no longer limited to a narrow space, they built more convenient houses in airy streets ; the dark alleys and damp dwellings under gi-ound were gradually abandoned, and a more comfortable mode of living superseded the former misery. By this means the mor- tality was considerably diminished, and the power of epidemics was checked ; nor can it be doubted, that the better administration of the laws greatly obviated the dissolution of social ties in times of plague, and the effects of superstition and religious animosity, which had formerly been so frightful. These inestimable nation- al improvements, however, took place but gradually, and were not a little retarded for a time by the new evil of the employment of mercenaries. For as the germs of vice were scattered in all di- rections by the wandering Lansquenets, so also the infection of noxious diseases found easier entrance into the towns and villages through the medium of this dissolute and widely-spread class of 1 1518. "This year there was a great gathering of tin- Landsknects, who, a- ioon as they had asscmhled, went forth from Friesland, committed great ravages, and made an incursion into the country at Gellern, and were beaten by VernJow." Wtntzen- berger, fol. 23. a. 2 "Not to mention too the curtailment of life, for one seldom meets with an old Landskneelit ." Franc/c, loe. cit. 182 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. men. The Lansquenets of the sixteenth centurj 7 , as spreaders of contagion, supplied the place of the former Romish pilgrims and flagellants; they even proved a more permanent scourge than those wanderers of the middle ages, who only made their appear- ance on extraordinary occasions. We need here only call to mind the malignant and beyond measure noisome lues which at the end of the fifteenth century spread with the rapidity of lightning over all Europe. It was not an importation from the innocent inhabitants of the New World, nor was it bred by the ill-treated Marrani, 1 the victims of the Spanish Inquisition. It was the mercenary army of Charles the VII Ith in Naples (1495), whose excesses gave to the already existing poison a malignity till then unknown, and prepared for the deeply-rooted depravity a scourge at which all the world shuddered with horror. It is, moreover, in place here to observe that, in the larger armies which the new military system now brought into the field, the ordinary camp dis- eases, to which another very fatal one was added, 2 were of course much more extensively propagated than in the less numerous forces of preceding centuries, and consequently that the peaceful inhabitants of the towns and of the country at large were thereby exposed to much danger. Sect. 3. — Sweating Sickness. Meantime Europe was frequently and very severely visited by the epidemics of the middle ages, the terrors of the constantly re- curring plague being borne with gloomy resignation to the inevit- able evil with which, as a merited chastisement, the anger of God, according to the notion of the times, afflicted the human race. Even the English were not exempt from this fearful visitation, which, in the year 1499, carried off 30,000 people in London alone, so that the king found it advisable to retire with all his court to Calais. 3 Thus the recollection of the Sweating Sickness of 1485 was gradually obliterated. No one thought of its possible return, and all the world was occupied with other matters, when the old enemy unexpectedly again raised his head in the summer of 1506, and scared away this comfortable state of false security. The renewed eruption of the epidemic was not, on this occasion, connected with any important occurrence, so that contemporaries 1 Those Moors were so called who, in order to remain in Spain after the conquest of Granada, embraced Christianity. — Transl. note. 2 The petechial fever, which will be spoken of further on. 3 Grafton, p. 220. Webster,, Vol. T. p. 149. ACCOMPANYING PHENOMENA. 183 have not even mentioned the month in which it began to rage. Towards the autumn it had again disappeared, and as no new symptoms were added to the disease, the form of which was identified by a reference to the old descriptions, it was immediate- ly treated by the same means, the efficacy of which those who had witnessed the epidemic of 1485 lauded with so much reason. 1 Every exposure to heat or cold was, as at that time, avoided, and the malignant fever was left to the curative powers of nature, the patient being kept moderately warm in bed ; and no powerful medicines being administered. The result was beyond all ex- pectation favourable, for in few houses did any fatal cases occur. The victory over this dreaded enemy was now, by a pardonable error, attributed more to human skill than to the mildness of the malady on this occasion, which, even under a less judicious treat- ment of the sick, would certainly not have been marked by any considerable degree of severity. The disease broke out in London, but whether it penetrated to the west or not, contemporary writers, being soon convinced of its slight character, have left us no intelligence. However widely it may have spread, it certainly was confined to England, and no- where occasioned any great mortality. Sect. 4. — Accompanying Phenomena. As the epidemic was on this occasion so very mild, it was not accompanied by any remarkable phenomena in England, but the case was otherwise in the rest of Europe, as will be proved by the following details. After a wet summer, in the year 1505, a severe winter set in. 2 Comets were seen in this as in the following year. An eruption of Vesuvius also took place in 1506, 3 which may be mentioned, although it is well established that volcanic commo- tions are to be taken into account only in great pestilences, not in less extensive epidemics. In England there blew a violent storm from the south-west, from the 15th till the 26th of January, 1506, which drove the king of Castille, Philip of Austria, with his con- sort Johanna, from the Netherlands to Weymouth ; and as, some days before, a golden eagle falling from St. Paul's church, in London, had crushed a black eagle which ornamented some lower building, evil predictions were promulgated among the people rc- 1 Stow, p. 809. Fabian, p. 689. Bali, p. 502. Grafton, p. 230. UolinshcJ, p. 536. Bacon, p. 225. - Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 403. a. Pestilenz, A. 1505. s Webster, Vol. I. p. 151. Franck, fol. 210. a. Pingrt, T. I. p. 481. 184 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. specting the fate of this son of the emperor. 1 This event, how- ever, could not be considered as at all connected with the pesti- lence which broke out about half a year afterwards. More con- sideration is due to the gloom and anxiety which at that time depressed the spirit of the English nation. The reckless avarice of Henry the Vllth, named the English Solomon, 2 gave just ground for doubts regarding the security of property ; and the pious foundations — those accustomed means of softening the dreaded wrath of Heaven, which the king, who became gradually more and more broken down by disease, established, could not efface the recollection of the arbitrary violence and extortions of his corrupt servants. 3 Although these extortions principally affected the wealthy nobility, who were much in need of restraint, vet dark mistrust was o-eneral, and all cheerfulness was banished from the minds of the people. This state of feeling might have been favourable to the propagation of the returning disease, but the genius of the year 1506 would not suffer it to be more than a slight and transient reminiscence of a mystically hidden danger, the import of which was not apparent to any medical inquirer of the 16th century. Sect. 5. — Petechial Fever in Italy, 1505. Thus, if we paid attention, as usual, only to the palpable oc- currences which take place on the earth and beneath its surface, the Sweating Sickness of the above-mentioned year might appear to be unconnected with more considerable commotions of organic life. The powers of nature, however, are in their operations too subtle to be comprehended by our dull senses and by the coarse me- chanism of our organs ; nay, precisely at a time when neither the one nor the other indicate any alteration around us, those opera- tions bring to light the most extraordinary phenomena in the human frame — that most sensitive index of secret influences on life. This observation was fully confirmed at the time of the first return of the sweating fever. For whilst this disease remained confined to England, there appeared in the southern and central parts of Europe a new and fatal epidemic, which thenceforth 1 Bacon, p. 225. Stow, p. 809. Compare the other chroniclers, who most of them notice this event in great detail. 2 Bacon, p. 231. 3 Empsoa and Dudley, ministers of Henry VII., who left hchind him treasure to the amouut of £1,800,000 sterling. Compare Hume, Hist, of Eng. Vol. III., Bacon, and almost all the chroniclers. Both ministers were executed in the following reign, in tli" year 1509. Graf tun, p. 23G. PETECHIAL FEVER IN ITALY, 1505. 185 visited these nations almost continually with intense malignity. This was the petechial fever, a disease unknown to the older phy- sicians, which was first observed in 1490, in Granada, where it threatened to annihilate the army of Ferdinand the Catholic, and made great havoc also among the Saracens. 1 The bubo plague had immediately preceded it (1483, 1485, 1486, 1488, 1489, and 1490), 2 and it may with no small probability be assumed that the petechial fever had resulted from this as a peculiar variety, since in other countries also, fifteen years later, the bubo plague degenerated in various ways, and examples are not wanting in which particular forms or constituent parts of great epidemics thus branch off from them, in the same manner as, under favourable circumstances, these will combine together, and united into one destructive whole, multiply the sources of danger. Yet some contemporaries were of opinion that the petechial fever had been brought over to Granada 3 by Venetian mercena- ries from Cyprus, where they had fought against the Turks, and where this disorder was said to have been indigenous. Not- withstanding some good works 4 already existing, this matter has need of a more thorough examination, which might bring to light important and instructive results, respecting the rise and spread of the petechial fever, and especially respecting its relation to other plagues. Whatever may be held with regard to the true origin of this fever, thus much is established, that it was at first an independent European disease, and that, at the commencement, having occupied the southern part of this quarter of the world, it then became connected, in a manner as extraordinary as it was worthy of observation, with the sweating sickness of the north ; since the nearly simultaneous eruption of the sweating fever in England, with the great epidemic petechial fever in the year 1505, may be justly attributed to an influence common to both, although unquestionably of greater power in the latter. The epidemic petechial fever, of which we are now treating, prevailed principally in Italy, and is described by Fracastoro as the first plague of this kind which ever appeared in that ' Villalba, T. T. pp. 69. 99.— Ferdinand's conflicts with the Saracens began in 1481, and ended with the fall of Granada in 1492. The disease is called in Spanish Tabar- dillo, which name, however, Villalba has not quoted at so early a period as 1490. a Villalba, loc. cit. p. 66. 3 Ibid. p. 69.— Fracastor. de raorbis contagios. L. II. C. 6. p. 1-3.5. — Schencke von Grafenberg, 1,. VI. p. 553. T. II. 4 Besides those already named, the writings of Omodei and Pfeufer. Compare Sehnurrer, Book II. p. 27. 186 THE SWEATING SICKNESS. country. Of this new disease, 1 which was placed by this great physician midway between the bubo plague and the non-pestilen- tial fever, the contagious quality showed itself from the beginning; yet it was plainly perceived, that the contagion did not take effect so quickly as in the bubo plague, that it was not conveyed so easily by means of clothing and other articles, and that phy- sicians and attendants on the sick were the only persons who in- curred much danger of infection. The fever began insidiously, and with very slight symptoms, so that the sick in general did not so much as seek medical aid. Many persons, and even phy- sicians among the number, suffered themselves to be deceived by this circumstance, and thus, not being aware of the danger, they hoped to effect an easy cure, and were not a little astonished at the sudden development of malignant phenomena. The heat was inconsiderable, in proportion to the fever, yet those affected felt a certain inward indisposition, a general depression of all the vital powers, and a weariness as if after great exertion. They lay upon their backs with an oppressed brain, their senses were blunted, and in most cases delirium and gloomy muttering, with bloodshot eyes, commenced from the fourth to the seventh day. The urine was usually clear and copious at the beginning, it then became red and turbid, or resembling pomegranate wine (granatwein), the pulse was slow and small, the evacuations putrid and offensive, and either on the fourth or seventh day red or purple spots, like flea-bites, or larger, or resembling lentils (lenticuloe), which also gave a name to the disorder, broke out on the arms, the back, and the breast. There was either no thirst at all, or very little ; the tongue was loaded, and in many cases a lethargic state came on. Others, on the contrary, suffered from sleeplessness, or from both these symptoms alternately. The disease reached its height on the seventh or on the fourteenth day, and in some cases still later. In many there existed a retention of urine with very unfavourable prognosis. Women seldom died of this fever, elderly people still more rarely j and Jews scarcely ever. Young people, on the other hand, and children died in great numbers, and especially from among the higher ranks, while the plague, on the contrary, used generally to commit its ravages only among the poorer classes. An inordinate loss of power in the commencement betokened death, as also a too violent effect from mild aperient means, and a failure in alleviation after a complete crisis. Patients were seen to die who 1 It was called Puncticula or Peticulie, also Febris stigmatica, Testis petecbiosa. Reusner, p. 11. For later synonimes, see Burseiius, Vol. II. p. 293. PETECHIAL FEVER IN ITALY, 1505. 187 had lost to the extent of three pounds of blood from the nose. It was also a very bad sign when the spots disappeared, or broke out tardily, or were of a blackish-blue colour. Phenomena of an oppo- site character, on the contrary, afforded hope of recovery. The best physicians were agreed on the importance of the petechiae as an indication of the nature of the crisis ; for those cases in which they were abundant and of a good quality were cured much more easily than those in which the eruption was suppressed. An abundant perspiration also was particularly con- ducive to recovery, whereas all other evacuations, especially a flux from the bowels, proved to be injurious and even fatal. If we keep these phenomena in view, and consider, moreover, that in the widely extending lues venerea of those times cutane- ous eruptions predominated over the other symptoms, the Eng- lish sweating sickness in the north of Europe will appear, as in connexion with this circumstance, of a very important character ; and the supposition, that the morbid activity of the system during the whole of this age maintained a decided determination to the skin, may thence be fairly considered as something more than a mere conjecture. This fact speaks for itself, but the causes of this altered tem- perament of the body it is not an easy matter to discover. Fra- castoro, who knew much better than his modern followers how to manage his sagacious doctrine of contagion, looked for these causes in the quality of the air, which was manifest by much more evident phenomena in the epidemic petechial fever of 1528 than in that of 1505, and he traced an active connexion between this quality, which he called "infection of the atmosphere," ' and the condition of the blood ; thus indicating unknown influences by an obscure notion. He considered the altered quality of the blood according to the established views of that period, which the petechial spotted fever seemed clearly to confirm, as a putrefaction ; and he even assumed that, in the non-epidemic petechial fevers, which, from the year 1505 forward, frequently occurred, isolated causes must have given rise to changes in the blood, as well as that quality of the air, to which this great physician attributed the general and continued alterations which take place in the nature of diseases. 1 Consinrilem ergo infectionem in acre primum fuisse censeudum est, quae mox in nos ingesta tale febrium genus attulerit, qua tametsi pestilentea rase mm sunt, in limine tamen earum videntur esse. Analogia vero ejus coutagionis ad sanguinem prscipue esse ci>n