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diff --git a/1739-h/1739-h.htm b/1739-h/1739-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33f735f --- /dev/null +++ b/1739-h/1739-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4917 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + TD { vertical-align: top; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania, by Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania, by +Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, Edited by Henry Morley, Translated by +Benjamin Guy Babington + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania + + +Author: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: May 7, 2007 [eBook #1739] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK DEATH, AND THE DANCING +MANIA*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition by +Jane Duff, proofed by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org.</p> +<h1>The Black Death<br /> +and<br /> +The Dancing Mania.</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">from the german +of</span><br /> +J. F. C. HECKER.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">translated +by</span><br /> +B. G. BABINGTON.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">CASSELL & COMPANY, <span +class="smcap">Limited</span>:<br /> +<span class="smcap"><i>london</i></span>, <span +class="smcap"><i>paris</i></span>, <span class="smcap"><i>new +york & melbourne</i></span>.<br /> +1888.</p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> +<p>Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker was one of three generations of +distinguished professors of medicine. His father, August +Friedrich Hecker, a most industrious writer, first practised as a +physician in Frankenhausen, and in 1790 was appointed Professor +of Medicine at the University of Erfurt. In 1805 he was +called to the like professorship at the University of +Berlin. He died at Berlin in 1811.</p> +<p>Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker was born at Erfurt in January, +1795. He went, of course—being then ten years +old—with his father to Berlin in 1805, studied at Berlin in +the Gymnasium and University, but interrupted his studies at the +age of eighteen to fight as a volunteer in the war for a +renunciation of Napoleon and all his works. After Waterloo +he went back to his studies, took his doctor’s degree in +1817 with a treatise on the “Antiquities of +Hydrocephalus,” and became privat-docent in the Medical +Faculty of the Berlin University. His inclination was +strong from the first towards the historical side of inquiries +into Medicine. This caused him to undertake a +“History of Medicine,” of which the first volume +appeared in 1822. It obtained rank for him at Berlin as +Extraordinary Professor of the History of Medicine. This +office was changed into an Ordinary professorship of the same +study in 1834, and Hecker held that office until his death in +1850.</p> +<p>The office was created for a man who had a special genius for +this form of study. It was delightful to himself, and he +made it delightful to others. He is regarded as the founder +of historical pathology. He studied disease in relation to +the history of man, made his study yield to men outside his own +profession an important chapter in the history of civilisation, +and even took into account physical phenomena upon the surface of +the globe as often affecting the movement and character of +epidemics.</p> +<p>The account of “The Black Death” here translated +by Dr. Babington was Hecker’s first important work of this +kind. It was published in 1832, and was followed in the +same year by his account of “The Dancing +Mania.” The books here given are the two that first +gave Hecker a wide reputation. Many other such treatises +followed, among them, in 1865, a treatise on the “Great +Epidemics of the Middle Ages.” Besides his +“History of Medicine,” which, in its second volume, +reached into the fourteenth century, and all his smaller +treatises, Hecker wrote a large number of articles in +Encyclopædias and Medical Journals. Professor J.F.K. +Hecker was, in a more interesting way, as busy as Professor A.F. +Hecker, his father, had been. He transmitted the family +energies to an only son, Karl von Hecker, born in 1827, who +distinguished himself greatly as a Professor of Midwifery, and +died in 1882.</p> +<p>Benjamin Guy Babington, the translator of these books of +Hecker’s, belonged also to a family in which the study of +Medicine has passed from father to son, and both have been +writers. B.G. Babington was the son of Dr. William +Babington, who was physician to Guy’s Hospital for some +years before 1811, when the extent of his private practice caused +him to retire. He died in 1833. His son, Benjamin Guy +Babington, was educated at the Charterhouse, saw service as a +midshipman, served for seven years in India, returned to England, +graduated as physician at Cambridge in 1831. He +distinguished himself by inquiries into the cholera epidemic in +1832, and translated these pieces of Hecker’s in 1833, for +publication by the Sydenham Society. He afterwards +translated Hecker’s other treatises on epidemics of the +Middle Ages. Dr. B.G. Babington was Physician to +Guy’s Hospital from 1840 to 1855, and was a member of the +Medical Council of the General Board of Health. He died on +the 8th of April, 1866.</p> +<p>H.M.</p> +<h2>THE BLACK DEATH</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER I—GENERAL OBSERVATIONS</h3> +<p>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 ordinary alternations of life +and death, and the destroying angel waves over man and beast his +flaming sword.</p> +<p>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 renovated, and the mind +awakens from torpor and depression to the consciousness of an +intellectual existence.</p> +<p>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 +human race, and the ways of Providence would be more plainly +discernible. It would then be demonstrable, that the mind +of nations is deeply affected by the destructive conflict of the +powers of nature, and that great disasters lead to striking +changes in general civilisation. For all that exists in +man, whether good or evil, is rendered conspicuous by the +presence of great danger. His inmost feelings are +roused—the thought of self-preservation masters his +spirit—self-denial is put to severe proof, and wherever +darkness and barbarism prevail, there the affrighted mortal flies +to the idols of his superstition, and all laws, human and divine, +are criminally violated.</p> +<p>In conformity with a general law of nature, such a state of +excitement brings about a change, beneficial or detrimental, +according 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 empires, because the powers of nature +themselves produce plagues, and subjugate the human will, which, +in the contentions of nations, alone predominates.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER II—THE DISEASE</h3> +<p>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 +oriental 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, <i>la mortalega grande</i>, +the Great Mortality.</p> +<p>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 +coincidence with the signs of the same disease in modern +times.</p> +<p>The imperial writer, Kantakusenos, whose own son, Andronikus, +died of this plague in Constantinople, notices great imposthumes +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, +which are no less produced by plague in all its forms. In +many cases, black spots broke out all over the body, either +single, or united and confluent.</p> +<p>These symptoms were not all found in every case. In +many, one alone was sufficient to cause death, while some +patients recovered, contrary to expectation, though afflicted +with all. Symptoms of cephalic affection were frequent; +many patients became stupefied 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 could 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, +however, 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 +pestiferous odour.</p> +<p>In the West, the following were the predominating symptoms on +the eruption of this disease. An ardent fever, accompanied +by an evacuation of blood, proved fatal in the first three +days. It appears that buboes and inflammatory boils did not +at first come out at all, but that the disease, in the form of +carbuncular (<i>anthrax-artigen</i>) affection of the lungs, +effected the destruction of life before the other symptoms were +developed.</p> +<p>Thus did the plague rage in Avignon for six or eight weeks, +and the pestilential breath of the sick, who expectorated blood, +caused a terrible contagion far and near; for even the vicinity +of those who had fallen ill of plague was certain death; so that +parents abandoned their infected children, and all the ties of +kindred were dissolved. After this period, buboes in the +axilla and in the groin, and inflammatory boils all over the +body, made their appearance; but it was not until seven months +afterwards that some patients recovered with matured buboes, as +in the ordinary milder form of plague.</p> +<p>Such is the report of the courageous Guy de Chauliac, who +vindicated the honour of medicine, by bidding defiance to danger; +boldly and constantly assisting the affected, and disdaining the +excuse of his colleagues, who held the Arabian notion, that +medical aid was unavailing, and that the contagion justified +flight. He saw the plague twice in Avignon, first in the +year 1348, from January to August, and then twelve years later, +in the autumn, when it returned from Germany, and for nine months +spread general distress and terror. The first time it raged +chiefly among the poor, but in the year 1360, more among the +higher classes. It now also destroyed a great many +children, whom it had formerly spared, and but few women.</p> +<p>The like was seen in Egypt. Here also inflammation of +the lungs was predominant, and destroyed quickly and infallibly, +with burning heat and expectoration of blood. Here too the +breath of the sick spread a deadly contagion, and human aid was +as vain as it was destructive to those who approached the +infected.</p> +<p>Boccacio, who was an eye-witness of its incredible fatality in +Florence, the seat of the revival of science, gives a more lively +description of the attack of the disease than his non-medical +contemporaries.</p> +<p>It commenced here, not as in the East, with bleeding at the +nose, a sure sign of inevitable death; but there took place at +the beginning, both in men and women, tumours in the groin and in +the axilla, varying in circumference up to the size of an apple +or an egg, and called by the people, pest-boils +(gavoccioli). Then there appeared similar tumours +indiscriminately over all parts of the body, and black or blue +spots came out on the arms or thighs, or on other parts, either +single and large, or small and thickly studded. These spots +proved equally fatal with the pest-boils, which had been from the +first regarded as a sure sign of death. No power of +medicine brought relief—almost all died within the first +three days, some sooner, some later, after the appearance of +these signs, and for the most part entirely without fever or +other symptoms. The plague spread itself with the greater +fury, as it communicated from the sick to the healthy, like fire +among dry and oily fuel, and even contact with the clothes and +other articles which had been used by the infected, seemed to +induce the disease. As it advanced, not only men, but +animals fell sick and shortly expired, if they had touched things +belonging to the diseased or dead. Thus Boccacio himself +saw two hogs on the rags of a person who had died of plague, +after staggering about for a short time, fall down dead as if +they had taken poison. In other places multitudes of dogs, +cats, fowls, and other animals, fell victims to the contagion; +and it is to be presumed that other epizootes among animals +likewise took place, although the ignorant writers of the +fourteenth century are silent on this point.</p> +<p>In Germany there was a repetition in every respect of the same +phenomena. The infallible signs of the oriental bubo-plague +with its inevitable contagion were found there as everywhere +else; but the mortality was not nearly so great as in the other +parts of Europe. The accounts do not all make mention of +the spitting of blood, the diagnostic symptom of this fatal +pestilence; we are not, however, thence to conclude that there +was any considerable mitigation or modification of the disease, +for we must not only take into account the defectiveness of the +chronicles, but that isolated testimonies are often contradicted +by many others. Thus the chronicles of Strasburg, which +only take notice of boils and glandular swellings in the +axillæ and groins, are opposed by another account, +according to which the mortal spitting of blood was met with in +Germany; but this again is rendered suspicious, as the narrator +postpones the death of those who were thus affected, to the +sixth, and (even the) eighth day, whereas, no other author +sanctions so long a course of the disease; and even in Strasburg, +where a mitigation of the plague may, with most probability, be +assumed since the year 1349, only 16,000 people were carried off, +the generality expired by the third or fourth day. In +Austria, and especially in Vienna, the plague was fully as +malignant as anywhere, so that the patients who had red spots and +black boils, as well as those afflicted with tumid glands, died +about the third day; and lastly, very frequent sudden deaths +occurred on the coasts of the North Sea and in Westphalia, +without any further development of the malady.</p> +<p>To France, this plague came in a northern direction from +Avignon, and was there more destructive than in Germany, so that +in many places not more than two in twenty of the inhabitants +survived. Many were struck, as if by lightning, and died on +the spot, and this more frequently among the young and strong +than the old; patients with enlarged glands in the axillæ +and groins scarcely survive two or three days; and no sooner did +these fatal signs appear, than they bid adieu to the world, and +sought consolation only in the absolution which Pope Clement VI. +promised them in the hour of death.</p> +<p>In England the malady appeared, as at Avignon, with spitting +of blood, and with the same fatality, so that the sick who were +afflicted either with this symptom or with vomiting of blood, +died in some cases immediately, in others within twelve hours, or +at the latest two days. The inflammatory boils and buboes +in the groins and axillæ were recognised at once as +prognosticating a fatal issue, and those were past all hope of +recovery in whom they arose in numbers all over the body. +It was not till towards the close of the plague that they +ventured to open, by incision, these hard and dry boils, when +matter flowed from them in small quantity, and thus, by +compelling nature to a critical suppuration, many patients were +saved. Every spot which the sick had touched, their breath, +their clothes, spread the contagion; and, as in all other places, +the attendants and friends who were either blind to their danger, +or heroically despised it, fell a sacrifice to their +sympathy. Even the eyes of the patient were considered a +sources of contagion, which had the power of acting at a +distance, whether on account of their unwonted lustre, or the +distortion which they always suffer in plague, or whether in +conformity with an ancient notion, according to which the sight +was considered as the bearer of a demoniacal enchantment. +Flight from infected cities seldom availed the fearful, for the +germ of the disease adhered to them, and they fell sick, remote +from assistance, in the solitude of their country houses.</p> +<p>Thus did the plague spread over England with unexampled +rapidity, after it had first broken out in the county of Dorset, +whence it advanced through the counties of Devon and Somerset, to +Bristol, and thence reached Gloucester, Oxford and London. +Probably few places escaped, perhaps not any; for the annuals of +contemporaries report that throughout the land only a tenth part +of the inhabitants remained alive.</p> +<p>From England the contagion was carried by a ship to Bergen, +the capital of Norway, where the plague then broke out in its +most frightful form, with vomiting of blood; and throughout the +whole country, spared not more than a third of the +inhabitants. The sailors found no refuge in their ships; +and vessels were often seen driving about on the ocean and +drifting on shore, whose crews had perished to the last man.</p> +<p>In Poland the affected were attacked with spitting blood, and +died in a few days in such vast numbers, that, as it has been +affirmed, scarcely a fourth of the inhabitants were left.</p> +<p>Finally, in Russia the plague appeared two years later than in +Southern Europe; yet here again, with the same symptoms as +elsewhere. Russian contemporaries have recorded that it +began with rigor, heat, and darting pain in the shoulders and +back; that it was accompanied by spitting of blood, and +terminated fatally in two, or at most three days. It is not +till the year 1360 that we find buboes mentioned as occurring in +the neck, in the axillæ, and in the groins, which are +stated to have broken out when the spitting of blood had +continued some time. According to the experience of Western +Europe, however, it cannot be assumed that these symptoms did not +appear at an earlier period.</p> +<p>Thus much, from authentic sources, on the nature of the Black +Death. The descriptions which have been communicated +contain, with a few unimportant exceptions, all the symptoms of +the oriental plague which have been observed in more modern +times. No doubt can obtain on this point. The facts +are placed clearly before our eyes. We must, however, bear +in mind that this violent disease does not always appear in the +same form, and that while the essence of the poison which it +produces, and which is separated so abundantly from the body of +the patient, remains unchanged, it is proteiform in its +varieties, from the almost imperceptible vesicle, unaccompanied +by fever, which exists for some time before it extends its poison +inwardly, and then excites fever and buboes, to the fatal form in +which carbuncular inflammations fall upon the most important +viscera.</p> +<p>Such was the form which the plague assumed in the fourteenth +century, for the accompanying chest affection which appeared in +all the countries whereof we have received any account, cannot, +on a comparison with similar and familiar symptoms, be considered +as any other than the inflammation of the lungs of modern +medicine, a disease which at present only appears sporadically, +and, owing to a putrid decomposition of the fluids, is probably +combined with hemorrhages from the vessels of the lungs. +Now, as every carbuncle, whether it be cutaneous or internal, +generates in abundance the matter of contagion which has given +rise to it, so, therefore, must the breath of the affected have +been poisonous in this plague, and on this account its power of +contagion wonderfully increased; wherefore the opinion appears +incontrovertible, that owing to the accumulated numbers of the +diseased, not only individual chambers and houses, but whole +cities were infected, which, moreover, in the Middle Ages, were, +with few exceptions, narrowly built, kept in a filthy state, and +surrounded with stagnant ditches. Flight was, in +consequence, of no avail to the timid; for even though they had +sedulously avoided all communication with the diseased and the +suspected, yet their clothes were saturated with the pestiferous +atmosphere, and every inspiration imparted to them the seeds of +the destructive malady, which, in the greater number of cases, +germinated with but too much fertility. Add to which, the +usual propagation of the plague through clothes, beds, and a +thousand other things to which the pestilential poison +adheres—a propagation which, from want of caution, must +have been infinitely multiplied; and since articles of this kind, +removed from the access of air, not only retain the matter of +contagion for an indefinite period, but also increase its +activity and engender it like a living being, frightful +ill-consequences followed for many years after the first fury of +the pestilence was past.</p> +<p>The affection of the stomach, often mentioned in vague terms, +and occasionally as a vomiting of blood, was doubtless only a +subordinate symptom, even if it be admitted that actual +hematemesis did occur. For the difficulty of distinguishing +a flow of blood from the stomach, from a pulmonic expectoration +of that fluid, is, to non-medical men, even in common cases, not +inconsiderable. How much greater then must it have been in +so terrible a disease, where assistants could not venture to +approach the sick without exposing themselves to certain +death? Only two medical descriptions of the malady have +reached us, the one by the brave Guy de Chauliac, the other by +Raymond Chalin de Vinario, a very experienced scholar, who was +well versed in the learning of the time. The former takes +notice only of fatal coughing of blood; the latter, besides this, +notices epistaxis, hematuria, and fluxes of blood from the +bowels, as symptoms of such decided and speedy mortality, that +those patients in whom they were observed usually died on the +same or the following day.</p> +<p>That a vomiting of blood may not, here and there, have taken +place, perhaps have been even prevalent in many places, is, from +a consideration of the nature of the disease, by no means to be +denied; for every putrid decomposition of the fluids begets a +tendency to hemorrhages of all kinds. Here, however, it is +a question of historical certainty, which, after these doubts, is +by no means established. Had not so speedy a death followed +the expectoration of blood, we should certainly have received +more detailed intelligence respecting other hemorrhages; but the +malady had no time to extend its effects further over the +extremities of the vessels. After its first fury, however, +was spent, the pestilence passed into the usual febrile form of +the oriental plague. Internal carbuncular inflammations no +longer took place, and hemorrhages became phenomena, no more +essential in this than they are in any other febrile +disorders. Chalin, who observed not only the great +mortality of 1348, and the plague of 1360, but also that of 1373 +and 1382, speaks moreover of affections of the throat, and +describes the back spots of plague patients more satisfactorily +than any of his contemporaries. The former appeared but in +few cases, and consisted in carbuncular inflammation of the +gullet, with a difficulty of swallowing, even to suffocation, to +which, in some instances, was added inflammation of the +ceruminous glands of the ears, with tumours, producing great +deformity. Such patients, as well as others, were affected +with expectoration of blood; but they did not usually die before +the sixth, and, sometimes, even as late as the fourteenth +day. The same occurrence, it is well known, is not uncommon +in other pestilences; as also blisters on the surface of the +body, in different places, in the vicinity of which, tumid glands +and inflammatory boils, surrounded by discoloured and black +streaks, arose, and thus indicated the reception of the +poison. These streaked spots were called, by an apt +comparison, the girdle, and this appearance was justly considered +extremely dangerous.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER III—CAUSES—SPREAD</h3> +<p>An inquiry into the causes of the Black Death will not be +without important results in the study of the plagues which have +visited the world, although it cannot advance beyond +generalisation without entering upon a field hitherto +uncultivated, and, to this hour entirely unknown. Mighty +revolutions in the organism of the earth, of which we have +credible information, had preceded it. From China to the +Atlantic, the foundations of the earth were +shaken—throughout Asia and Europe the atmosphere was in +commotion, and endangered, by its baneful influence, both +vegetable and animal life.</p> +<p>The series of these great events began in the year 1333, +fifteen years before the plague broke out in Europe: they first +appeared in China. Here a parching drought, accompanied by +famine, commenced in the tract of country watered by the rivers +Kiang and Hoai. This was followed by such violent torrents +of rain, in and about Kingsai, at that time the capital of the +empire, that, according to tradition, more than 400,000 people +perished in the floods. Finally the mountain Tsincheou fell +in, and vast clefts were formed in the earth. In the +succeeding year (1334), passing over fabulous traditions, the +neighbourhood of Canton was visited by inundations; whilst in +Tche, after an unexampled drought, a plague arose, which is said +to have carried off about 5,000,000 of people. A few months +afterwards an earthquake followed, at and near Kingsai; and +subsequent to the falling in of the mountains of Ki-ming-chan, a +lake was formed of more than a hundred leagues in circumference, +where, again, thousands found their grave. In Houkouang and +Honan, a drought prevailed for five months; and innumerable +swarms of locusts destroyed the vegetation; while famine and +pestilence, as usual, followed in their train. Connected +accounts of the condition of Europe before this great catastrophe +are not to be expected from the writers of the fourteenth +century. It is remarkable, however, that simultaneously +with a drought and renewed floods in China, in 1336, many +uncommon atmospheric phenomena, and in the winter, frequent +thunderstorms, were observed in the north of France; and so early +as the eventful year of 1333 an eruption of Etna took +place. According to the Chinese annuals, about 4,000,000 of +people perished by famine in the neighbourhood of Kiang in 1337; +and deluges, swarms of locusts, and an earthquake which lasted +six days, caused incredible devastation. In the same year, +the first swarms of locusts appeared in Franconia, which were +succeeded in the following year by myriads of these +insects. In 1338 Kingsai was visited by an earthquake of +ten days’ duration; at the same time France suffered from a +failure in the harvest; and thenceforth, till the year 1342, +there was in China a constant succession of inundations, +earthquakes, and famines. In the same year great floods +occurred in the vicinity of the Rhine and in France, which could +not be attributed to rain alone; for, everywhere, even on tops of +mountains, springs were seen to burst forth, and dry tracts were +laid under water in an inexplicable manner. In the +following year, the mountain Hong-tchang, in China, fell in, and +caused a destructive deluge; and in Pien-tcheon and Leang-tcheou, +after three months’ rain, there followed unheard-of +inundations, which destroyed seven cities. In Egypt and +Syria, violent earthquakes took place; and in China they became, +from this time, more and more frequent; for they recurred, in +1344, in Ven-tcheou, where the sea overflowed in consequence; in +1345, in Ki-tcheou, and in both the following years in Canton, +with subterraneous thunder. Meanwhile, floods and famine +devastated various districts, until 1347, when the fury of the +elements subsided in China.</p> +<p>The signs of terrestrial commotions commenced in Europe in the +year 1348, after the intervening districts of country in Asia had +probably been visited in the same manner.</p> +<p>On the island of Cyprus, the plague from the East had already +broken out; when an earthquake shook the foundations of the +island, and was accompanied by so frightful a hurricane, that the +inhabitants who had slain their Mahometan slaves, in order that +they might not themselves be subjugated by them, fled in dismay, +in all directions. The sea overflowed—the ships were +dashed to pieces on the rocks, and few outlived the terrific +event, whereby this fertile and blooming island was converted +into a desert. Before the earthquake, a pestiferous wind +spread so poisonous an odour, that many, being overpowered by it, +fell down suddenly and expired in dreadful agonies.</p> +<p>This phenomenon is one of the rarest that has ever been +observed, for nothing is more constant than the composition of +the air; and in no respect has nature been more careful in the +preservation of organic life. Never have naturalists +discovered in the atmosphere foreign elements, which, evident to +the senses, and borne by the winds, spread from land to land, +carrying disease over whole portions of the earth, as is +recounted to have taken place in the year 1348. It is, +therefore, the more to be regretted, that in this extraordinary +period, which, owing to the low condition of science, was very +deficient in accurate observers, so little that can be depended +on respecting those uncommon occurrences in the air, should have +been recorded. Yet, German accounts say expressly, that a +thick, stinking mist advanced from the East, and spread itself +over Italy; and there could be no deception in so palpable a +phenomenon. The credibility of unadorned traditions, +however little they may satisfy physical research, can scarcely +be called in question when we consider the connection of events; +for just at this time earthquakes were more general than they had +been within the range of history. In thousands of places +chasms were formed, from whence arose noxious vapours; and as at +that time natural occurrences were transformed into miracles, it +was reported, that a fiery meteor, which descended on the earth +far in the East, had destroyed everything within a circumference +of more than a hundred leagues, infecting the air far and +wide. The consequences of innumerable floods contributed to +the same effect; vast river districts had been converted into +swamps; foul vapours arose everywhere, increased by the odour of +putrified locusts, which had never perhaps darkened the sun in +thicker swarms, and of countless corpses, which even in the +well-regulated countries of Europe, they knew not how to remove +quickly enough out of the sight of the living. It is +probable, therefore, that the atmosphere contained foreign, and +sensibly perceptible, admixtures to a great extent, which, at +least in the lower regions, could not be decomposed, or rendered +ineffective by separation.</p> +<p>Now, if we go back to the symptoms of the disease, the ardent +inflammation of the lungs points out, that the organs of +respiration yielded to the attack of an atmospheric +poison—a poison which, if we admit the independent origin +of the Black Plague at any one place of the globe, which, under +such extraordinary circumstances, it would be difficult to doubt, +attacked the course of the circulation in as hostile a manner as +that which produces inflammation of the spleen, and other animal +contagions that cause swelling and inflammation of the lymphatic +glands.</p> +<p>Pursuing the course of these grand revolutions further, we +find notice of an unexampled earthquake, which, on the 25th +January, 1348, shook Greece, Italy, and the neighbouring +countries. Naples, Rome, Pisa, Bologna, Padua, Venice, and +many other cities, suffered considerably; whole villages were +swallowed up. Castles, houses, and churches were +overthrown, and hundreds of people were buried beneath their +ruins. In Carinthia, thirty villages, together with all the +churches, were demolished; more than a thousand corpses were +drawn out of the rubbish; the city of Villach was so completely +destroyed that very few of its inhabitants were saved; and when +the earth ceased to tremble it was found that mountains had been +moved from their positions, and that many hamlets were left in +ruins. It is recorded that during this earthquake the wine +in the casks became turbid, a statement which may be considered +as furnishing proof that changes causing a decomposition of the +atmosphere had taken place; but if we had no other information +from which the excitement of conflicting powers of nature during +these commotions might be inferred, yet scientific observations +in modern times have shown that the relation of the atmosphere to +the earth is changed by volcanic influences. Why then, may +we not, from this fact, draw retrospective inferences respecting +those extraordinary phenomena?</p> +<p>Independently of this, however, we know that during this +earthquake, the duration of which is stated by some to have been +a week, and by others a fortnight, people experienced an unusual +stupor and headache, and that many fainted away.</p> +<p>These destructive earthquakes extended as far as the +neighbourhood of Basle, and recurred until the year 1360 +throughout Germany, France, Silesia, Poland, England, and +Denmark, and much further north.</p> +<p>Great and extraordinary meteors appeared in many places, and +were regarded with superstitious horror. A pillar of fire, +which on the 20th of December, 1348, remained for an hour at +sunrise over the pope’s palace in Avignon; a fireball, +which in August of the same year was seen at sunset over Paris, +and was distinguished from similar phenomena by its longer +duration, not to mention other instances mixed up with wonderful +prophecies and omens, are recorded in the chronicles of that +age.</p> +<p>The order of the seasons seemed to be inverted; rains, flood, +and failures in crops were so general that few places were exempt +from them; and though an historian of this century assure us that +there was an abundance in the granaries and storehouses, all his +contemporaries, with one voice, contradict him. The +consequences of failure in the crops were soon felt, especially +in Italy and the surrounding countries, where, in this year, a +rain, which continued for four months, had destroyed the +seed. In the larger cities they were compelled, in the +spring of 1347, to have recourse to a distribution of bread among +the poor, particularly at Florence, where they erected large +bakehouses, from which, in April, ninety-four thousand loaves of +bread, each of twelve ounces in weight, were daily +dispensed. It is plain, however, that humanity could only +partially mitigate the general distress, not altogether obviate +it.</p> +<p>Diseases, the invariable consequence of famine, broke out in +the country as well as in cities; children died of hunger in +their mother’s arms—want, misery, and despair were +general throughout Christendom.</p> +<p>Such are the events which took place before the eruption of +the Black Plague in Europe. Contemporaries have explained +them after their own manner, and have thus, like their posterity, +under similar circumstances, given a proof that mortals possess +neither senses nor intellectual powers sufficiently acute to +comprehend the phenomena produced by the earth’s organism, +much less scientifically to understand their effects. +Superstition, selfishness in a thousand forms, the presumption of +the schools, laid hold of unconnected facts. They vainly +thought to comprehend the whole in the individual, and perceived +not the universal spirit which, in intimate union with the mighty +powers of nature, animates the movements of all existence, and +permits not any phenomenon to originate from isolated +causes. To attempt, five centuries after that age of +desolation, to point out the causes of a cosmical commotion, +which has never recurred to an equal extent, to indicate +scientifically the influences, which called forth so terrific a +poison in the bodies of men and animals, exceeds the limits of +human understanding. If we are even now unable, with all +the varied resources of an extended knowledge of nature, to +define that condition of the atmosphere by which pestilences are +generated, still less can we pretend to reason retrospectively +from the nineteenth to the fourteenth century; but if we take a +general view of the occurrences, that century will give us +copious information, and, as applicable to all succeeding times, +of high importance.</p> +<p>In the progress of connected natural phenomena from east to +west, that great law of nature is plainly revealed which has so +often and evidently manifested itself in the earth’s +organism, as well as in the state of nations dependent upon +it. In the inmost depths of the globe that impulse was +given in the year 1333, which in uninterrupted succession for six +and twenty years shook the surface of the earth, even to the +western shores of Europe. From the very beginning the air +partook of the terrestrial concussion, atmospherical waters +overflowed the land, or its plants and animals perished under the +scorching heat. The insect tribe was wonderfully called +into life, as if animated beings were destined to complete the +destruction which astral and telluric powers had begun. +Thus did this dreadful work of nature advance from year to year; +it was a progressive infection of the zones, which exerted a +powerful influence both above and beneath the surface of the +earth; and after having been perceptible in slighter indications, +at the commencement of the terrestrial commotions in China, +convulsed the whole earth.</p> +<p>The nature of the first plague in China is unknown. We +have no certain intelligence of the disease until it entered the +western countries of Asia. Here it showed itself as the +Oriental plague, with inflammation of the lungs; in which form it +probably also may have begun in China, that is to say, as a +malady which spreads, more than any other, by contagion—a +contagion that, in ordinary pestilences, requires immediate +contact, and only under favourable circumstances of rare +occurrence is communicated by the mere approach to the +sick. The share which this cause had in the spreading of +the plague over the whole earth was certainly very great; and the +opinion that the Black Death might have been excluded from +Western Europe by good regulations, similar to those which are +now in use, would have all the support of modern experience, +provided it could be proved that this plague had been actually +imported from the East, or that the Oriental plague in general, +whenever it appears in Europe, has its origin in Asia or +Egypt. Such a proof, however, can by no means be produced +so as to enforce conviction; for it would involve the impossible +assumption, either that there is no essential difference between +the degree of civilisation of the European nations, in the most +ancient and in modern times, or that detrimental circumstances, +which have yielded only to the civilisation of human society and +the regular cultivation of countries, could not formerly keep up +the glandular plague.</p> +<p>The plague was, however, known in Europe before nations were +united by the bonds of commerce and social intercourse; hence +there is ground for supposing that it sprang up spontaneously, in +consequence of the rude manner of living and the uncultivated +state of the earth, influences which peculiarly favour the origin +of severe diseases. Now we need not go back to the earlier +centuries, for the fourteenth itself, before it had half expired, +was visited by five or six pestilences.</p> +<p>If, therefore, we consider the peculiar property of the +plague, that in countries which it has once visited it remains +for a long time in a milder form, and that the epidemic +influences of 1342, when it had appeared for the last time, were +particularly favourable to its unperceived continuance, till +1348, we come to the notion that in this eventful year also the +germs of plague existed in Southern Europe, which might be +vivified by atmospherical deteriorations; and that thus, at least +in part, the Black Plague may have originated in Europe +itself. The corruption of the atmosphere came from the +East; but the disease itself came not upon the wings of the wind, +but was only excited and increased by the atmosphere where it had +previously existed.</p> +<p>This source of the Black Plague was not, however, the only +one; for far more powerful than the excitement of the latent +elements of the plague by atmospheric influences was the effect +of the contagion communicated from one people to another on the +great roads and in the harbours of the Mediterranean. From +China the route of the caravans lay to the north of the Caspian +Sea, through Central Asia, to Tauris. Here ships were ready +to take the produce of the East to Constantinople, the capital of +commerce, and the medium of connection between Asia, Europe, and +Africa. Other caravans went from India to Asia Minor, and +touched at the cities south of the Caspian Sea, and, lastly, from +Bagdad through Arabia to Egypt; also the maritime communication +on the Red Sea, from India to Arabia and Egypt, was not +inconsiderable. In all these directions contagion made its +way; and, doubtless, Constantinople and the harbours of Asia +Minor are to be regarded as the foci of infection, whence it +radiated to the most distant seaports and islands.</p> +<p>To Constantinople the plague had been brought from the +northern coast of the Black Sea, after it had depopulated the +countries between those routes of commerce, and appeared as early +as 1347 in Cyprus, Sicily, Marseilles, and some of the seaports +of Italy. The remaining islands of the Mediterranean, +particularly Sardinia, Corsica, and Majorca, were visited in +succession. Foci of contagion existed also in full activity +along the whole southern coast of Europe; when, in January, 1348, +the plague appeared in Avignon, and in other cities in the south +of France and north of Italy, as well as in Spain.</p> +<p>The precise days of its eruption in the individual towns are +no longer to be ascertained; but it was not simultaneous; for in +Florence the disease appeared in the beginning of April, in +Cesena the 1st June, and place after place was attacked +throughout the whole year; so that the plague, after it had +passed through the whole of France and Germany—where, +however, it did not make its ravages until the following +year—did not break out till August in England, where it +advanced so gradually, that a period of three months elapsed +before it reached London. The northern kingdoms were +attacked by it in 1349; Sweden, indeed, not until November of +that year, almost two years after its eruption in Avignon. +Poland received the plague in 1349, probably from Germany, if not +from the northern countries; but in Russia it did not make its +appearance until 1351, more than three years after it had broken +out in Constantinople. Instead of advancing in a +north-westerly direction from Tauris and from the Caspian Sea, it +had thus made the great circuit of the Black Sea, by way of +Constantinople, Southern and Central Europe, England, the +northern kingdoms, and Poland, before it reached the Russian +territories, a phenomenon which has not again occurred with +respect to more recent pestilences originating in Asia.</p> +<p>Whether any difference existed between the indigenous plague, +excited by the influence of the atmosphere, and that which was +imported by contagion, can no longer be ascertained from facts; +for the contemporaries, who in general were not competent to make +accurate researches of this kind, have left no data on the +subject. A milder and a more malignant form certainly +existed, and the former was not always derived from the latter, +as is to be supposed from this circumstance—that the +spitting of blood, the infallible diagnostic of the latter, on +the first breaking out of the plague, is not similarly mentioned +in all the reports; and it is therefore probable that the milder +form belonged to the native plague—the more malignant, to +that introduced by contagion. Contagion was, however, in +itself, only one of many causes which gave rise to the Black +Plague.</p> +<p>This disease was a consequence of violent commotions in the +earth’s organism—if any disease of cosmical origin +can be so considered. One spring set a thousand others in +motion for the annihilation of living beings, transient or +permanent, of mediate or immediate effect. The most +powerful of all was contagion; for in the most distant countries, +which had scarcely yet heard the echo of the first concussion, +the people fell a sacrifice to organic poison—the untimely +offspring of vital energies thrown into violent commotion.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER IV—MORTALITY</h3> +<p>We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages of +the Black Plague, if numerical statements were wanted, as in +modern times. Let us go back for a moment to the fourteenth +century. The people were yet but little civilised. +The Church had indeed subdued them; but they all suffered from +the ill consequences of their original rudeness. The +dominion of the law was not yet confirmed. Sovereigns had +everywhere to combat powerful enemies to internal tranquillity +and security. The cities were fortresses for their own +defence. Marauders encamped on the roads. The +husbandman was a feudal slave, without possessions of his +own. Rudeness was general, humanity as yet unknown to the +people. Witches and heretics were burned alive. +Gentle rulers were contemned as weak; wild passions, severity and +cruelty, everywhere predominated. Human life was little +regarded. Governments concerned not themselves about the +numbers of their subjects, for whose welfare it was incumbent on +them to provide. Thus, the first requisite for estimating +the loss of human life, namely, a knowledge of the amount of the +population, is altogether wanting; and, moreover, the traditional +statements of the amount of this loss are so vague, that from +this source likewise there is only room for probable +conjecture.</p> +<p>Cairo lost daily, when the plague was raging with its greatest +violence, from 10,000 to 15,000; being as many as, in modern +times, great plagues have carried off during their whole +course. In China, more than thirteen millions are said to +have died; and this is in correspondence with the certainly +exaggerated accounts from the rest of Asia. India was +depopulated. Tartary, the Tartar kingdom of Kaptschak, +Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia, were covered with dead +bodies—the Kurds fled in vain to the mountains. In +Caramania and Cæsarea none were left alive. On the +roads—in the camps—in the +caravansaries—unburied bodies alone were seen; and a few +cities only (Arabian historians name Maarael-Nooman, Schisur, and +Harem) remained, in an unaccountable manner, free. In +Aleppo, 500 died daily; 22,000 people, and most of the animals, +were carried off in Gaza, within six weeks. Cyprus lost +almost all its inhabitants; and ships without crews were often +seen in the Mediterranean, as afterwards in the North Sea, +driving about, and spreading the plague wherever they went on +shore. It was reported to Pope Clement, at Avignon, that +throughout the East, probably with the exception of China, +23,840,000 people had fallen victims to the plague. +Considering the occurrences of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, we might, on first view, suspect the accuracy of this +statement. How (it might be asked) could such great wars +have been carried on—such powerful efforts have been made; +how could the Greek Empire, only a hundred years later, have been +overthrown, if the people really had been so utterly +destroyed?</p> +<p>This account is nevertheless rendered credible by the +ascertained fact, that the palaces of princes are less accessible +to contagious diseases than the dwellings of the multitude; and +that in places of importance, the influx from those districts +which have suffered least, soon repairs even the heaviest +losses. We must remember, also, that we do not gather much +from mere numbers without an intimate knowledge of the state of +society. We will therefore confine ourselves to exhibiting +some of the more credible accounts relative to European +cities.</p> +<p>In Florence there died of the Black Plague—60,000<br /> +In Venice—100,000<br /> +In Marseilles, in one month—16,000<br /> +In Siena—70,000<br /> +In Paris—50,000<br /> +In St. Denys—14,000<br /> +In Avignon—60,000<br /> +In Strasburg—16,000<br /> +In Lübeck—9,000<br /> +In Basle—14,000<br /> +In Erfurt, at least—16,000<br /> +In Weimar—5,000<br /> +In Limburg—2,500<br /> +In London, at least—100,000<br /> +In Norwich—51,100</p> +<p>To which may be added—</p> +<p>Franciscan Friars in German—124,434<br /> +Minorites in Italy—30,000</p> +<p>This short catalogue might, by a laborious and uncertain +calculation, deduced from other sources, be easily further +multiplied, but would still fail to give a true picture of the +depopulation which took place. Lübeck, at that time +the Venice of the North, which could no longer contain the +multitudes that flocked to it, was thrown into such consternation +on the eruption of the plague, that the citizens destroyed +themselves as if in frenzy.</p> +<p>Merchants whose earnings and possessions were unbounded, +coldly and willingly renounced their earthly goods. They +carried their treasures to monasteries and churches, and laid +them at the foot of the altar; but gold had no charms for the +monks, for it brought them death. They shut their gates; +yet, still it was cast to them over the convent walls. +People would brook no impediment to the last pious work to which +they were driven by despair. When the plague ceased, men +thought they were still wandering among the dead, so appalling +was the livid aspect of the survivors, in consequence of the +anxiety they had undergone, and the unavoidable infection of the +air. Many other cities probably presented a similar +appearance; and it is ascertained that a great number of small +country towns and villages, which have been estimated, and not +too highly, at 200,000, were bereft of all their inhabitants.</p> +<p>In many places in France, not more than two out of twenty of +the inhabitants were left alive, and the capital felt the fury of +the plague, alike in the palace and the cot.</p> +<p>Two queens, one bishop, and great numbers of other +distinguished persons, fell a sacrifice to it, and more than 500 +a day died in the Hôtel Dieu, under the faithful care of +the sisters of charity, whose disinterested courage, in this age +of horror, displayed the most beautiful traits of human +virtue. For although they lost their lives, evidently from +contagion, and their numbers were several times renewed, there +was still no want of fresh candidates, who, strangers to the +unchristian fear of death, piously devoted themselves to their +holy calling.</p> +<p>The churchyards were soon unable to contain the dead, and many +houses, left without inhabitants, fell to ruins.</p> +<p>In Avignon, the Pope found it necessary to consecrate the +Rhone, that bodies might be thrown into the river without delay, +as the churchyards would no longer hold them; so likewise, in all +populous cities, extraordinary measures were adopted, in order +speedily to dispose of the dead. In Vienna, where for some +time 1,200 inhabitants died daily, the interment of corpses in +the churchyards and within the churches was forthwith prohibited; +and the dead were then arranged in layers, by thousands, in six +large pits outside the city, as had already been done in Cairo +and Paris. Yet, still many were secretly buried; for at all +times the people are attached to the consecrated cemeteries of +their dead, and will not renounce the customary mode of +interment.</p> +<p>In many places it was rumoured that plague patients were +buried alive, as may sometimes happen through senseless alarm and +indecent haste; and thus the horror of the distressed people was +everywhere increased. In Erfurt, after the churchyards were +filled, 12,000 corpses were thrown into eleven great pits; and +the like might, more or less exactly, be stated with respect to +all the larger cities. Funeral ceremonies, the last +consolation of the survivors, were everywhere impracticable.</p> +<p>In all Germany, according to a probable calculation, there +seem to have died only 1,244,434 inhabitants; this country, +however, was more spared than others: Italy, on the contrary, was +most severely visited. It is said to have lost half its +inhabitants; and this account is rendered credible from the +immense losses of individual cities and provinces: for in +Sardinia and Corsica, according to the account of the +distinguished Florentine, John Villani, who was himself carried +off by the Black Plague, scarcely a third part of the population +remained alive; and it is related of the Venetians, that they +engaged ships at a high rate to retreat to the islands; so that +after the plague had carried off three-fourths of her +inhabitants, that proud city was left forlorn and desolate. +In Padua, after the cessation of the plague, two-thirds of the +inhabitants were wanting; and in Florence it was prohibited to +publish the numbers of dead, and to toll the bells at their +funerals, in order that the living might not abandon themselves +to despair.</p> +<p>We have more exact accounts of England; most of the great +cities suffered incredible losses; above all, Yarmouth, in which +7,052 died; Bristol, Oxford, Norwich, Leicester, York, and +London, where in one burial ground alone, there were interred +upwards of 50,000 corpses, arranged in layers, in large +pits. It is said that in the whole country scarcely a tenth +part remained alive; but this estimate is evidently too +high. Smaller losses were sufficient to cause those +convulsions, whose consequences were felt for some centuries, in +a false impulse given to civil life, and whose indirect +influence, unknown to the English, has perhaps extended even to +modern times.</p> +<p>Morals were deteriorated everywhere, and the service of God +was in a great measure laid aside; for, in many places, the +churches were deserted, being bereft of their priests. The +instruction of the people was impeded; covetousness became +general; and when tranquillity was restored, the great increase +of lawyers was astonishing, to whom the endless disputes +regarding inheritances offered a rich harvest. The want of +priests too, throughout the country, operated very detrimentally +upon the people (the lower classes being most exposed to the +ravages of the plague, whilst the houses of the nobility were, in +proportion, much more spared), and it was no compensation that +whole bands of ignorant laymen, who had lost their wives during +the pestilence, crowded into the monastic orders, that they might +participate in the respectability of the priesthood, and in the +rich heritages which fell in to the Church from all +quarters. The sittings of Parliament, of the King’s +Bench, and of most of the other courts, were suspended as long as +the malady raged. The laws of peace availed not during the +dominion of death. Pope Clement took advantage of this +state of disorder to adjust the bloody quarrel between Edward III +and Philip VI; yet he only succeeded during the period that the +plague commanded peace. Philip’s death (1350) +annulled all treaties; and it is related that Edward, with other +troops indeed, but with the same leaders and knights, again took +the field. Ireland was much less heavily visited that +England. The disease seems to have scarcely reached the +mountainous districts of that kingdom; and Scotland too would +perhaps have remained free, had not the Scots availed themselves +of the discomfiture of the English to make an irruption into +their territory, which terminated in the destruction of their +army, by the plague and by the sword, and the extension of the +pestilence, through those who escaped, over the whole +country.</p> +<p>At the commencement, there was in England a superabundance of +all the necessaries of life; but the plague, which seemed then to +be the sole disease, was soon accompanied by a fatal murrain +among the cattle. Wandering about without herdsmen, they +fell by thousands; and, as has likewise been observed in Africa, +the birds and beasts of prey are said not to have touched +them. Of what nature this murrain may have been, can no +more be determined, than whether it originated from communication +with plague patients, or from other causes; but thus much is +certain, that it did not break out until after the commencement +of the Black Death. In consequence of this murrain, and the +impossibility of removing the corn from the fields, there was +everywhere a great rise in the price of food, which to many was +inexplicable, because the harvest had been plentiful; by others +it was attributed to the wicked designs of the labourers and +dealers; but it really had its foundation in the actual +deficiency arising from circumstances by which individual classes +at all times endeavour to profit. For a whole year, until +it terminated in August, 1349, the Black Plague prevailed in this +beautiful island, and everywhere poisoned the springs of comfort +and prosperity.</p> +<p>In other countries, it generally lasted only half a year, but +returned frequently in individual places; on which account, some, +without sufficient proof, assigned to it a period of seven +years.</p> +<p>Spain was uninterruptedly ravaged by the Black Plague till +after the year 1350, to which the frequent internal feuds and the +wars with the Moors not a little contributed. Alphonso XI., +whose passion for war carried him too far, died of it at the +siege of Gibraltar, on the 26th of March, 1350. He was the +only king in Europe who fell a sacrifice to it; but even before +this period, innumerable families had been thrown into +affliction. The mortality seems otherwise to have been +smaller in Spain than in Italy, and about as considerable as in +France.</p> +<p>The whole period during which the Black Plague raged with +destructive violence in Europe was, with the exception of Russia, +from the year 1347 to 1350. The plagues which in the sequel +often returned until the year 1383, we do not consider as +belonging to “the Great Mortality.” They were +rather common pestilences, without inflammation of the lungs, +such as in former times, and in the following centuries, were +excited by the matter of contagion everywhere existing, and +which, on every favourable occasion, gained ground anew, as is +usually the case with this frightful disease.</p> +<p>The concourse of large bodies of people was especially +dangerous; and thus the premature celebration of the Jubilee to +which Clement VI. cited the faithful to Rome (1350) during the +great epidemic, caused a new eruption of the plague, from which +it is said that scarcely one in a hundred of the pilgrims +escaped.</p> +<p>Italy was, in consequence, depopulated anew; and those who +returned, spread poison and corruption of morals in all +directions. It is therefore the less apparent how that +Pope, who was in general so wise and considerate, and who knew +how to pursue the path of reason and humanity under the most +difficult circumstances, should have been led to adopt a measure +so injurious; since he himself was so convinced of the salutary +effect of seclusion, that during the plague in Avignon he kept up +constant fires, and suffered no one to approach him; and in other +respects gave such orders as averted, or alleviated, much +misery.</p> +<p>The changes which occurred about this period in the north of +Europe are sufficiently memorable to claim a few moments’ +attention. In Sweden two princes died—Haken and Knut, +half-brothers of King Magnus; and in Westgothland alone, 466 +priests. The inhabitants of Iceland and Greenland found in +the coldness of their inhospitable climate no protection against +the southern enemy who had penetrated to them from happier +countries. The plague caused great havoc among them. +Nature made no allowance for their constant warfare with the +elements, and the parsimony with which she had meted out to them +the enjoyments of life. In Denmark and Norway, however, +people were so occupied with their own misery, that the +accustomed voyages to Greenland ceased. Towering icebergs +formed at the same time on the coast of East Greenland, in +consequence of the general concussion of the earth’s +organism; and no mortal, from that time forward, has ever seen +that shore or its inhabitants.</p> +<p>It has been observed above, that in Russia the Black Plague +did not break out until 1351, after it had already passed through +the south and north of Europe. In this country also, the +mortality was extraordinarily great; and the same scenes of +affliction and despair were exhibited, as had occurred in those +nations which had already passed the ordeal: the same mode of +burial—the same horrible certainty of death—the same +torpor and depression of spirits. The wealthy abandoned +their treasures, and gave their villages and estates to the +churches and monasteries; this being, according to the notions of +the age, the surest way of securing the favour of Heaven and the +forgiveness of past sins. In Russia, too, the voice of +nature was silenced by fear and horror. In the hour of +danger, fathers and mothers deserted their children, and children +their parents.</p> +<p>Of all the estimates of the number of lives lost in Europe, +the most probable is, that altogether a fourth part of the +inhabitants were carried off. Now, if Europe at present +contain 210,000,000 inhabitants, the population, not to take a +higher estimate, which might easily by justified, amounted to at +least 105,000,000 in the sixteenth century.</p> +<p>It may therefore be assumed, without exaggeration, that Europe +lost during the Black Death 25,000,000 of inhabitants.</p> +<p>That her nations could so quickly overcome such a fearful +concussion in their external circumstances, and, in general, +without retrograding more than they actually did, could so +develop their energies in the following century, is a most +convincing proof of the indestructibility of human society as a +whole. To assume, however, that it did not suffer any +essential change internally, because in appearance everything +remained as before, is inconsistent with a just view of cause and +effect. Many historians seem to have adopted such an +opinion; accustomed, as usual, to judge of the moral condition of +the people solely according to the vicissitudes of earthly power, +the events of battles, and the influence of religion, but to pass +over with indifference the great phenomena of nature, which +modify, not only the surface of the earth, but also the human +mind. Hence, most of them have touched but superficially on +the “Great Mortality” of the fourteenth +century. We, for our parts, are convinced that in the +history of the world the Black Death is one of the most important +events which have prepared the way for the present state of +Europe.</p> +<p>He who studies the human mind with attention, and forms a +deliberate judgment on the intellectual powers which set people +and States in motion, may perhaps find some proofs of this +assertion in the following observations:—at that time, the +advancement of the hierarchy was, in most countries, +extraordinary; for the Church acquired treasures and large +properties in land, even to a greater extent than after the +Crusades; but experience has demonstrated that such a state of +things is ruinous to the people, and causes them to retrograde, +as was evinced on this occasion.</p> +<p>After the cessation of the Black Plague, a greater fecundity +in women was everywhere remarkable—a grand phenomenon, +which, from its occurrence after every destructive pestilence, +proves to conviction, if any occurrence can do so, the prevalence +of a higher power in the direction of general organic life. +Marriages were, almost without exception, prolific; and double +and triple births were more frequent than at other times; under +which head, we should remember the strange remark, that after the +“Great Mortality” the children were said to have got +fewer teeth than before; at which contemporaries were mightily +shocked, and even later writers have felt surprise.</p> +<p>If we examine the grounds of this oft-repeated assertion, we +shall find that they were astonished to see children, cut twenty, +or at most, twenty-two teeth, under the supposition that a +greater number had formerly fallen to their share. Some +writers of authority, as, for example, the physician Savonarola, +at Ferrara, who probably looked for twenty-eight teeth in +children, published their opinions on this subject. Others +copied from them, without seeing for themselves, as often happens +in other matters which are equally evident; and thus the world +believed in the miracle of an imperfection in the human body +which had been caused by the Black Plague.</p> +<p>The people gradually consoled themselves after the sufferings +which they had undergone; the dead were lamented and forgotten; +and, in the stirring vicissitudes of existence, the world +belonged to the living.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER V—MORAL EFFECTS</h3> +<p>The mental shock sustained by all nations during the +prevalence of the Black Plague is without parallel and beyond +description. In the eyes of the timorous, danger was the +certain harbinger of death; many fell victims to fear on the +first appearance of the distemper, and the most stout-hearted +lost their confidence. Thus, after reliance on the future +had died away, the spiritual union which binds man to his family +and his fellow-creatures was gradually dissolved. The pious +closed their accounts with the world—eternity presented +itself to their view—their only remaining desire was for a +participation in the consolations of religion, because to them +death was disarmed of its sting.</p> +<p>Repentance seized the transgressor, admonishing him to +consecrate his remaining hours to the exercise of Christian +virtues. All minds were directed to the contemplation of +futurity; and children, who manifest the more elevated feelings +of the soul without alloy, were frequently seen, while labouring +under the plague, breathing out their spirit with prayer and +songs of thanksgiving.</p> +<p>An awful sense of contrition seized Christians of every +communion; they resolved to forsake their vices, to make +restitution for past offences, before they were summoned hence, +to seek reconciliation with their Maker, and to avert, by +self-chastisement, the punishment due to their former sins. +Human nature would be exalted, could the countless noble actions +which, in times of most imminent danger, were performed in +secret, be recorded for the instruction of future +generations. They, however, have no influence on the course +of worldly events. They are known only to silent +eyewitnesses, and soon fall into oblivion. But hypocrisy, +illusion, and bigotry stalk abroad undaunted; they desecrate what +is noble, they pervert what is divine, to the unholy purposes of +selfishness, which hurries along every good feeling in the false +excitement of the age. Thus it was in the years of this +plague. In the fourteenth century, the monastic system was +still in its full vigour, the power of the ecclesiastical orders +and brotherhoods was revered by the people, and the hierarchy was +still formidable to the temporal power. It was therefore in +the natural constitution of society that bigoted zeal, which in +such times makes a show of public acts of penance, should avail +itself of the semblance of religion. But this took place in +such a manner, that unbridled, self-willed penitence, degenerated +into lukewarmness, renounced obedience to the hierarchy, and +prepared a fearful opposition to the Church, paralysed as it was +by antiquated forms.</p> +<p>While all countries were filled with lamentations and woe, +there first arose in Hungary, and afterwards in Germany, the +Brotherhood of the Flagellants, called also the Brethren of the +Cross, or Cross-bearers, who took upon themselves the repentance +of the people for the sins they had committed, and offered +prayers and supplications for the averting of this plague. +This Order consisted chiefly of persons of the lower class, who +were either actuated by sincere contrition, or who joyfully +availed themselves of this pretext for idleness, and were hurried +along with the tide of distracting frenzy. But as these +brotherhoods gained in repute, and were welcomed by the people +with veneration and enthusiasm, many nobles and ecclesiastics +ranged themselves under their standard; and their bands were not +unfrequently augmented by children, honourable women, and nuns; +so powerfully were minds of the most opposite temperaments +enslaved by this infatuation. They marched through the +cities, in well-organised processions, with leaders and singers; +their heads covered as far as the eyes; their look fixed on the +ground, accompanied by every token of the deepest contrition and +mourning. They were robed in sombre garments, with red +crosses on the breast, back, and cap, and bore triple scourges, +tied in three or four knots, in which points of iron were +fixed. Tapers and magnificent banners of velvet and cloth +of gold were carried before them; wherever they made their +appearance, they were welcomed by the ringing bells, and the +people flocked from all quarters to listen to their hymns and to +witness their penance with devotion and tears.</p> +<p>In the year 1349, two hundred Flagellants first entered +Strasburg, where they were received with great joy, and +hospitably lodged by citizens. Above a thousand joined the +brotherhood, which now assumed the appearance of a wandering +tribe, and separated into two bodies, for the purpose of +journeying to the north and to the south. For more than +half a year, new parties arrived weekly; and on each arrival +adults and children left their families to accompany them; till +at length their sanctity was questioned, and the doors of houses +and churches were closed against them. At Spires, two +hundred boys, of twelve years of age and under, constituted +themselves into a Brotherhood of the Cross, in imitation of the +children who, about a hundred years before, had united, at the +instigation of some fanatic monks, for the purpose of recovering +the Holy Sepulchre. All the inhabitants of this town were +carried away by the illusion; they conducted the strangers to +their houses with songs of thanksgiving, to regale them for the +night. The women embroidered banners for them, and all were +anxious to augment their pomp; and at every succeeding pilgrimage +their influence and reputation increased.</p> +<p>It was not merely some individual parts of the country that +fostered them: all Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, Silesia, +and Flanders, did homage to the mania; and they at length became +as formidable to the secular as they were to the ecclesiastical +power. The influence of this fanaticism was great and +threatening, resembling the excitement which called all the +inhabitants of Europe into the deserts of Syria and Palestine +about two hundred and fifty years before. The appearance in +itself was not novel. As far back as the eleventh century, +many believers in Asia and Southern Europe afflicted themselves +with the punishment of flagellation. Dominicus Loricatus, a +monk of St. Croce d’Avellano, is mentioned as the master +and model of this species of mortification of the flesh; which, +according to the primitive notions of the Asiatic Anchorites, was +deemed eminently Christian. The author of the solemn +processions of the Flagellants is said to have been St. Anthony; +for even in his time (1231) this kind of penance was so much in +vogue, that it is recorded as an eventful circumstance in the +history of the world. In 1260, the Flagellants appeared in +Italy as <i>Devoti</i>. “When the land was polluted +by vices and crimes, an unexampled spirit of remorse suddenly +seized the minds of the Italians. The fear of Christ fell +upon all: noble and ignoble, old and young, and even children of +five years of age, marched through the streets with no covering +but a scarf round the waist. They each carried a scourge of +leathern thongs, which they applied to their limbs, amid sighs +and tears, with such violence that the blood flowed from the +wounds. Not only during the day, but even by night, and in +the severest winter, they traversed the cities with burning +torches and banners, in thousands and tens of thousands, headed +by their priests, and prostrated themselves before the +altars. They proceeded in the same manner in the villages: +and the woods and mountains resounded with the voices of those +whose cries were raised to God. The melancholy chaunt of +the penitent alone was heard. Enemies were reconciled; men +and women vied with each other in splendid works of charity, as +if they dreaded that Divine Omnipotence would pronounce on them +the doom of annihilation.”</p> +<p>The pilgrimages of the Flagellants extended throughout all the +province of Southern Germany, as far as Saxony, Bohemia, and +Poland, and even further; but at length the priests resisted this +dangerous fanaticism, without being able to extirpate the +illusion, which was advantageous to the hierarchy as long as it +submitted to its sway. Regnier, a hermit of Perugia, is +recorded as a fanatic preacher of penitence, with whom the +extravagance originated. In the year 1296 there was a great +procession of the Flagellants in Strasburg; and in 1334, fourteen +years before the Great Mortality, the sermon of Venturinus, a +Dominican friar of Bergamo, induced above 10,000 persons to +undertake a new pilgrimage. They scourged themselves in the +churches, and were entertained in the market-places at the public +expense. At Rome, Venturinus was derided, and banished by +the Pope to the mountains of Ricondona. He patiently +endured all—went to the Holy Land, and died at Smyrna, +1346. Hence we see that this fanaticism was a mania of the +middle ages, which, in the year 1349, on so fearful an occasion, +and while still so fresh in remembrance, needed no new founder; +of whom, indeed, all the records are silent. It probably +arose in many places at the same time; for the terror of death, +which pervaded all nations and suddenly set such powerful +impulses in motion, might easily conjure up the fanaticism of +exaggerated and overpowering repentance.</p> +<p>The manner and proceedings of the Flagellants of the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries exactly resemble each +other. But, if during the Black Plague, simple credulity +came to their aid, which seized, as a consolation, the grossest +delusion of religious enthusiasm, yet it is evident that the +leaders must have been intimately united, and have exercised the +power of a secret association. Besides, the rude band was +generally under the control of men of learning, some of whom at +least certainly had other objects in view independent of those +which ostensibly appeared. Whoever was desirous of joining +the brotherhood, was bound to remain in it thirty-four days, and +to have fourpence per day at his own disposal, so that he might +not be burthensome to any one; if married, he was obliged to have +the sanction of his wife, and give the assurance that he was +reconciled to all men. The Brothers of the Cross were not +permitted to seek for free quarters, or even to enter a house +without having been invited; they were forbidden to converse with +females; and if they transgressed these rules, or acted without +discretion, they were obliged to confess to the Superior, who +sentenced them to several lashes of the scourge, by way of +penance. Ecclesiastics had not, as such, any pre-eminence +among them; according to their original law, which, however, was +often transgressed, they could not become Masters, or take part +in the Secret Councils. Penance was performed twice every +day: in the morning and evening they went abroad in pairs, +singing psalms amid the ringing of the bells; and when they +arrived at the place of flagellation, they stripped the upper +part of their bodies and put off their shoes, keeping on only a +linen dress, reaching from the waist to the ankles. They +then lay down in a large circle, in different positions, +according to the nature of the crime: the adulterer with his face +to the ground; the perjurer on one side, holding up three of his +fingers, &c., and were then castigated, some more and some +less, by the Master, who ordered them to rise in the words of a +prescribed form. Upon this they scourged themselves, amid +the singing of psalms and loud supplications for the averting of +the plague, with genuflexions and other ceremonies, of which +contemporary writers give various accounts; and at the same time +constantly boasted of their penance, that the blood of their +wounds was mingled with that of the Saviour. One of them, +in conclusion, stoop up to read a letter, which it was pretended +an angel had brought from heaven to St. Peter’s Church, at +Jerusalem, stating that Christ, who was sore displeased at the +sins of man, had granted, at the intercession of the Holy Virgin +and of the angels, that all who should wander about for +thirty-four days and scourge themselves, should be partakers of +the Divine grace. This scene caused as great a commotion +among the believers as the finding of the holy spear once did at +Antioch; and if any among the clergy inquired who had sealed the +letter, he was boldly answered, the same who had sealed the +Gospel!</p> +<p>All this had so powerful an effect, that the Church was in +considerable danger; for the Flagellants gained more credit than +the priests, from whom they so entirely withdrew themselves, that +they even absolved each other. Besides, they everywhere +took possession of the churches, and their new songs, which went +from mouth to mouth, operated strongly on the minds of the +people. Great enthusiasm and originally pious feelings are +clearly distinguishable in these hymns, and especially in the +chief psalm of the Cross-bearers, which is still extant, and +which was sung all over Germany in different dialects, and is +probably of a more ancient date. Degeneracy, however, soon +crept in; crimes were everywhere committed; and there was no +energetic man capable of directing the individual excitement to +purer objects, even had an effectual resistance to the tottering +Church been at that early period seasonable, and had it been +possible to restrain the fanaticism. The Flagellants +sometimes undertook to make trial of their power of working +miracles; as in Strasburg, where they attempted, in their own +circle, to resuscitate a dead child: they, however, failed, and +their unskilfulness did them much harm, though they succeeded +here and there in maintaining some confidence in their holy +calling, by pretending to have the power of casting out evil +spirits.</p> +<p>The Brotherhood of the Cross announced that the pilgrimage of +the Flagellants was to continue for a space of thirty-four years; +and many of the Masters had doubtless determined to form a +lasting league against the Church; but they had gone too +far. So early as the first year of their establishment, the +general indignation set bounds to their intrigues: so that the +strict measures adopted by the Emperor Charles IV., and Pope +Clement, who, throughout the whole of this fearful period, +manifested prudence and noble-mindedness, and conducted himself +in a manner every way worthy of his high station, were easily put +into execution.</p> +<p>The Sorbonne, at Paris, and the Emperor Charles, had already +applied to the Holy See for assistance against these formidable +and heretical excesses, which had well-nigh destroyed the +influence of the clergy in every place; when a hundred of the +Brotherhood of the Cross arrived at Avignon from Basle, and +desired admission. The Pope, regardless of the intercession +of several cardinals, interdicted their public penance, which he +had not authorised; and, on pain of excommunication, prohibited +throughout Christendom the continuance of these +pilgrimages. Philip VI., supported by the condemnatory +judgment of the Sorbonne, forbade their reception in +France. Manfred, King of Sicily, at the same time +threatened them with punishment by death; and in the East they +were withstood by several bishops, among whom was Janussius, of +Gnesen, and Preczlaw, of Breslau, who condemned to death one of +their Masters, formerly a deacon; and, in conformity with the +barbarity of the times, had him publicly burnt. In +Westphalia, where so shortly before they had venerated the +Brothers of the Cross, they now persecuted them with relentless +severity; and in the Mark, as well as in all the other countries +of Germany, they pursued them as if they had been the authors of +every misfortune.</p> +<p>The processions of the Brotherhood of the Cross undoubtedly +promoted the spreading of the plague; and it is evident that the +gloomy fanaticism which gave rise to them would infuse a new +poison into the already desponding minds of the people.</p> +<p>Still, however, all this was within the bounds of barbarous +enthusiasm; but horrible were the persecutions of the Jews, which +were committed in most countries, with even greater exasperation +than in the twelfth century, during the first Crusades. In +every destructive pestilence the common people at first attribute +the mortality to poison. No instruction avails; the +supposed testimony of their eyesight is to them a proof, and they +authoritatively demand the victims of their rage. On whom, +then, was it so likely to fall as on the Jews, the usurers and +the strangers who lived at enmity with the Christians? They +were everywhere suspected of having poisoned the wells or +infected the air. They alone were considered as having +brought this fearful mortality upon the Christians. They +were, in consequence, pursued with merciless cruelty; and either +indiscriminately given up to the fury of the populace, or +sentenced by sanguinary tribunals, which, with all the forms of +the law, ordered them to be burnt alive. In times like +these, much is indeed said of guilt and innocence; but hatred and +revenge bear down all discrimination, and the smallest +probability magnifies suspicion into certainty. These +bloody scenes, which disgraced Europe in the fourteenth century, +are a counterpart to a similar mania of the age, which was +manifested in the persecutions of witches and sorcerers; and, +like these, they prove that enthusiasm, associated with hatred, +and leagued with the baser passions, may work more powerfully +upon whole nations than religion and legal order; nay, that it +even knows how to profit by the authority of both, in order the +more surely to satiate with blood the sword of long-suppressed +revenge.</p> +<p>The persecution of the Jews commenced in September and +October, 1348, at Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva, where the first +criminal proceedings were instituted against them, after they had +long before been accused by the people of poisoning the wells; +similar scenes followed in Bern and Freyburg, in January, +1349. Under the influence of excruciating suffering, the +tortured Jews confessed themselves guilty of the crime imputed to +them; and it being affirmed that poison had in fact been found in +a well at Zoffingen, this was deemed a sufficient proof to +convince the world; and the persecution of the abhorred culprits +thus appeared justifiable. Now, though we can take as +little exception at these proceedings as at the multifarious +confessions of witches, because the interrogatories of the +fanatical and sanguinary tribunals were so complicated, that by +means of the rack the required answer must inevitably be +obtained; and it is, besides, conformable to human nature that +crimes which are in everybody’s mouth may, in the end, be +actually committed by some, either from wantonness, revenge, or +desperate exasperation: yet crimes and accusations are, under +circumstances like these, merely the offspring of a revengeful, +frenzied spirit in the people; and the accusers, according to the +fundamental principles of morality, which are the same in every +age, are the more guilty transgressors.</p> +<p>Already in the autumn of 1348 a dreadful panic, caused by this +supposed empoisonment, seized all nations; in Germany especially +the springs and wells were built over, that nobody might drink of +them or employ their contents for culinary purposes; and for a +long time the inhabitants of numerous towns and villages used +only river and rain water. The city gates were also guarded +with the greatest caution: only confidential persons were +admitted; and if medicine or any other article, which might be +supposed to be poisonous, was found in the possession of a +stranger—and it was natural that some should have these +things by them for their private use—they were forced to +swallow a portion of it. By this trying state of privation, +distrust, and suspicion, the hatred against the supposed +poisoners became greatly increased, and often broke out in +popular commotions, which only served still further to infuriate +the wildest passions. The noble and the mean fearlessly +bound themselves by an oath to extirpate the Jews by fire and +sword, and to snatch them from their protectors, of whom the +number was so small, that throughout all Germany but few places +can be mentioned where these unfortunate people were not regarded +as outlaws and martyred and burnt. Solemn summonses were +issued from Bern to the towns of Basle, Freyburg in the Breisgau, +and Strasburg, to pursue the Jews as poisoners. The +burgomasters and senators, indeed, opposed this requisition; but +in Basle the populace obliged them to bind themselves by an oath +to burn the Jews, and to forbid persons of that community from +entering their city for the space of two hundred years. +Upon this all the Jews in Basle, whose number could not have been +inconsiderable, were enclosed in a wooden building, constructed +for the purpose, and burnt together with it, upon the mere outcry +of the people, without sentence or trial, which, indeed, would +have availed them nothing. Soon after the same thing took +place at Freyburg. A regular Diet was held at Bennefeld, in +Alsace, where the bishops, lords, and barons, as also deputies of +the counties and towns, consulted how they should proceed with +regard to the Jews; and when the deputies of Strasburg—not +indeed the bishop of this town, who proved himself a violent +fanatic—spoke in favour of the persecuted, as nothing +criminal was substantiated against them, a great outcry was +raised, and it was vehemently asked, why, if so, they had covered +their wells and removed their buckets. A sanguinary decree +was resolved upon, of which the populace, who obeyed the call of +the nobles and superior clergy, became but the too willing +executioners. Wherever the Jews were not burnt, they were +at least banished; and so being compelled to wander about, they +fell into the hands of the country people, who, without humanity, +and regardless of all laws, persecuted them with fire and +sword. At Spires, the Jews, driven to despair, assembled in +their own habitations, which they set on fire, and thus consumed +themselves with their families. The few that remained were +forced to submit to baptism; while the dead bodies of the +murdered, which lay about the streets, were put into empty +wine-casks and rolled into the Rhine, lest they should infect the +air. The mob was forbidden to enter the ruins of the +habitations that were burnt in the Jewish quarter; for the senate +itself caused search to be made for the treasure, which is said +to have been very considerable. At Strasburg two thousand +Jews were burnt alive in their own burial-ground, where a large +scaffold had been erected: a few who promised to embrace +Christianity were spared, and their children taken from the +pile. The youth and beauty of several females also excited +some commiseration, and they were snatched from death against +their will; many, however, who forcibly made their escape from +the flames were murdered in the streets.</p> +<p>The senate ordered all pledges and bonds to be returned to the +debtors, and divided the money among the work-people. Many, +however, refused to accept the base price of blood, and, +indignant at the scenes of bloodthirsty avarice, which made the +infuriated multitude forget that the plague was raging around +them, presented it to monasteries, in conformity with the advice +of their confessors. In all the countries on the Rhine, +these cruelties continued to be perpetrated during the succeeding +months; and after quiet was in some degree restored, the people +thought to render an acceptable service to God, by taking the +bricks of the destroyed dwellings, and the tombstones of the +Jews, to repair churches and to erect belfries.</p> +<p>In Mayence alone, 12,000 Jews are said to have been put to a +cruel death. The Flagellants entered that place in August; +the Jews, on this occasion, fell out with the Christians and +killed several; but when they saw their inability to withstand +the increasing superiority of their enemies, and that nothing +could save them from destruction, they consumed themselves and +their families by setting fire to their dwellings. Thus +also, in other places, the entry of the Flagellants gave rise to +scenes of slaughter; and as thirst for blood was everywhere +combined with an unbridled spirit of proselytism, a fanatic zeal +arose among the Jews to perish as martyrs to their ancient +religion. And how was it possible that they could from the +heart embrace Christianity, when its precepts were never more +outrageously violated? At Eslingen the whole Jewish +community burned themselves in their synagogue, and mothers were +often seen throwing their children on the pile, to prevent their +being baptised, and then precipitating themselves into the +flames. In short, whatever deeds fanaticism, revenge, +avarice and desperation, in fearful combination, could instigate +mankind to perform,—and where in such a case is the +limit?—were executed in the year 1349 throughout Germany, +Italy, and France, with impunity, and in the eyes of all the +world. It seemed as if the plague gave rise to scandalous +acts and frantic tumults, not to mourning and grief; and the +greater part of those who, by their education and rank, were +called upon to raise the voice of reason, themselves led on the +savage mob to murder and to plunder. Almost all the Jews +who saved their lives by baptism were afterwards burnt at +different times; for they continued to be accused of poisoning +the water and the air. Christians also, whom philanthropy +or gain had induced to offer them protection, were put on the +rack and executed with them. Many Jews who had embraced +Christianity repented of their apostacy, and, returning to their +former faith, sealed it with their death.</p> +<p>The humanity and prudence of Clement VI. must, on this +occasion, also be mentioned to his honour; but even the highest +ecclesiastical power was insufficient to restrain the unbridled +fury of the people. He not only protected the Jews at +Avignon, as far as lay in his power, but also issued two bulls, +in which he declared them innocent; and admonished all +Christians, though without success, to cease from such groundless +persecutions. The Emperor Charles IV. was also favourable +to them, and sought to avert their destruction wherever he could; +but he dared not draw the sword of justice, and even found +himself obliged to yield to the selfishness of the Bohemian +nobles, who were unwilling to forego so favourable an opportunity +of releasing themselves from their Jewish creditors, under favour +of an imperial mandate. Duke Albert of Austria burnt and +pillaged those of his cities which had persecuted the +Jews—a vain and inhuman proceeding, which, moreover, is not +exempt from the suspicion of covetousness; yet he was unable, in +his own fortress of Kyberg, to protect some hundreds of Jews, who +had been received there, from being barbarously burnt by the +inhabitants. Several other princes and counts, among whom +was Ruprecht von der Pfalz, took the Jews under their protection, +on the payment of large sums: in consequence of which they were +called “Jew-masters,” and were in danger of being +attacked by the populace and by their powerful neighbours. +These persecuted and ill-used people, except indeed where humane +individuals took compassion on them at their own peril, or when +they could command riches to purchase protection, had no place of +refuge left but the distant country of Lithuania, where Boleslav +V., Duke of Poland (1227-1279) had before granted them liberty of +conscience; and King Casimir the Great (1333-1370), yielding to +the entreaties of Esther, a favourite Jewess, received them, and +granted them further protection; on which account, that country +is still inhabited by a great number of Jews, who by their +secluded habits have, more than any people in Europe, retained +the manners of the Middle Ages.</p> +<p>But to return to the fearful accusations against the Jews; it +was reported in all Europe that they were in connection with +secret superiors in Toledo, to whose decrees they were subject, +and from whom they had received commands respecting the coining +of base money, poisoning, the murder of Christian children, +&c; that they received the poison by sea from remote parts, +and also prepared it themselves from spiders, owls, and other +venomous animals; but, in order that their secret might not be +discovered, that it was known only to their Rabbis and rich +men. Apparently there were but few who did not consider +this extravagant accusation well founded; indeed, in many +writings of the fourteenth century, we find great acrimony with +regard to the suspected poison-mixers, which plainly demonstrates +the prejudice existing against them. Unhappily, after the +confessions of the first victims in Switzerland, the rack +extorted similar ones in various places. Some even +acknowledged having received poisonous powder in bags, and +injunctions from Toledo, by secret messengers. Bags of this +description were also often found in wells, though it was not +unfrequently discovered that the Christians themselves had thrown +them in; probably to give occasion to murder and pillage; similar +instances of which may be found in the persecutions of the +witches.</p> +<p>This picture needs no additions. A lively image of the +Black Plague, and of the moral evil which followed in its train, +will vividly represent itself to him who is acquainted with +nature and the constitution of society. Almost the only +credible accounts of the manner of living, and of the ruin which +occurred in private life during this pestilence, are from Italy; +and these may enable us to form a just estimate of the general +state of families in Europe, taking into consideration what is +peculiar in the manners of each country.</p> +<p>“When the evil had become universal” (speaking of +Florence), “the hearts of all the inhabitants were closed +to feelings of humanity. They fled from the sick and all +that belonged to them, hoping by these means to save +themselves. Others shut themselves up in their houses, with +their wives, their children and households, living on the most +costly food, but carefully avoiding all excess. None were +allowed access to them; no intelligence of death or sickness was +permitted to reach their ears; and they spent their time in +singing and music, and other pastimes. Others, on the +contrary, considered eating and drinking to excess, amusements of +all descriptions, the indulgence of every gratification, and an +indifference to what was passing around them, as the best +medicine, and acted accordingly. They wandered day and +night from one tavern to another, and feasted without moderation +or bounds. In this way they endeavoured to avoid all +contact with the sick, and abandoned their houses and property to +chance, like men whose death-knell had already tolled.</p> +<p>“Amid this general lamentation and woe, the influence +and authority of every law, human and divine, vanished. +Most of those who were in office had been carried off by the +plague, or lay sick, or had lost so many members of their family, +that they were unable to attend to their duties; so that +thenceforth every one acted as he thought proper. Others in +their mode of living chose a middle course. They ate and +drank what they pleased, and walked abroad, carrying odoriferous +flowers, herbs, or spices, which they smelt to from time to time, +in order to invigorate the brain, and to avert the baneful +influence of the air, infected by the sick and by the innumerable +corpses of those who had died of the plague. Others carried +their precaution still further, and thought the surest way to +escape death was by flight. They therefore left the city; +women as well as men abandoning their dwellings and their +relations, and retiring into the country. But of these also +many were carried off, most of them alone and deserted by all the +world, themselves having previously set the example. Thus +it was that one citizen fled from another—a neighbour from +his neighbours—a relation from his relations; and in the +end, so completely had terror extinguished every kindlier +feeling, that the brother forsook the brother—the sister +the sister—the wife her husband; and at last, even the +parent his own offspring, and abandoned them, unvisited and +unsoothed, to their fate. Those, therefore, that stood in +need of assistance fell a prey to greedy attendants, who, for an +exorbitant recompense, merely handed the sick their food and +medicine, remained with them in their last moments, and then not +unfrequently became themselves victims to their avarice and lived +not to enjoy their extorted gain. Propriety and decorum +were extinguished among the helpless sick. Females of rank +seemed to forget their natural bashfulness, and committed the +care of their persons, indiscriminately, to men and women of the +lowest order. No longer were women, relatives or friends, +found in the house of mourning, to share the grief of the +survivors—no longer was the corpse accompanied to the grave +by neighbours and a numerous train of priests, carrying wax +tapers and singing psalms, nor was it borne along by other +citizens of equal rank. Many breathed their last without a +friend to soothe their dying pillow; and few indeed were they who +departed amid the lamentations and tears of their friends and +kindred. Instead of sorrow and mourning, appeared +indifference, frivolity and mirth; this being considered, +especially by the females, as conducive to health. Seldom +was the body followed by even ten or twelve attendants; and +instead of the usual bearers and sextons, mercenaries of the +lowest of the populace undertook the office for the sake of gain; +and accompanied by only a few priests, and often without a single +taper, it was borne to the very nearest church, and lowered into +the grave that was not already too full to receive it. +Among the middling classes, and especially among the poor, the +misery was still greater. Poverty or negligence induced +most of these to remain in their dwellings, or in the immediate +neighbourhood; and thus they fell by thousands; and many ended +their lives in the streets by day and by night. The stench +of putrefying corpses was often the first indication to their +neighbours that more deaths had occurred. The survivors, to +preserve themselves from infection, generally had the bodies +taken out of the houses and laid before the doors; where the +early morning found them in heaps, exposed to the affrighted gaze +of the passing stranger. It was no longer possible to have +a bier for every corpse—three or four were generally laid +together—husband and wife, father and mother, with two or +three children, were frequently borne to the grave on the same +bier; and it often happened that two priests would accompany a +coffin, bearing the cross before it, and be joined on the way by +several other funerals; so that instead of one, there were five +or six bodies for interment.”</p> +<p>Thus far Boccacio. On the conduct of the priests, +another contemporary observes: “In large and small towns +they had withdrawn themselves through fear, leaving the +performance of ecclesiastical duties to the few who were found +courageous and faithful enough to undertake them.” +But we ought not on that account to throw more blame on them than +on others; for we find proofs of the same timidity and +heartlessness in every class. During the prevalence of the +Black Plague, the charitable orders conducted themselves +admirably, and did as much good as can be done by individual +bodies in times of great misery and destruction, when compassion, +courage, and the nobler feelings are found but in the few, while +cowardice, selfishness and ill-will, with the baser passions in +their train, assert the supremacy. In place of virtue which +had been driven from the earth, wickedness everywhere reared her +rebellious standard, and succeeding generations were consigned to +the dominion of her baleful tyranny.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER VI—PHYSICIANS</h3> +<p>If we now turn to the medical talent which encountered the +“Great Mortality,” the Middle Ages must stand +excused, since even the moderns are of opinion that the art of +medicine is not able to cope with the Oriental plague, and can +afford deliverance from it only under particularly favourable +circumstances. We must bear in mind, also, that human +science and art appear particularly weak in great pestilences, +because they have to contend with the powers of nature, of which +they have no knowledge; and which, if they had been, or could be, +comprehended in their collective effects, would remain +uncontrollable by them, principally on account of the disordered +condition of human society. Moreover, every new plague has +its peculiarities, which are the less easily discovered on first +view because, during its ravages, fear and consternation humble +the proud spirit.</p> +<p>The physicians of the fourteenth century, during the Black +Death, did what human intellect could do in the actual condition +of the healing art; and their knowledge of the disease was by no +means despicable. They, like the rest of mankind, have +indulged in prejudices, and defended them, perhaps, with too much +obstinacy: some of these, however, were founded on the mode of +thinking of the age, and passed current in those days as +established truths; others continue to exist to the present +hour.</p> +<p>Their successors in the nineteenth century ought not therefore +to vaunt too highly the pre-eminence of their knowledge, for they +too will be subjected to the severe judgment of +posterity—they too will, with reason, be accused of human +weakness and want of foresight.</p> +<p>The medical faculty of Paris, the most celebrated of the +fourteenth century, were commissioned to deliver their opinion on +the causes of the Black Plague, and to furnish some appropriate +regulations with regard to living during its prevalence. +This document is sufficiently remarkable to find a place +here.</p> +<p>“We, the Members of the College of Physicians of Paris, +have, after mature consideration and consultation on the present +mortality, collected the advice of our old masters in the art, +and intend to make known the causes of this pestilence more +clearly than could be done according to the rules and principles +of astrology and natural science; we, therefore, declare as +follows:—</p> +<p>“It is known that in India and the vicinity of the Great +Sea, the constellations which combated the rays of the sun, and +the warmth of the heavenly fire, exerted their power especially +against that sea, and struggled violently with its waters. +(Hence vapours often originate which envelop the sun, and convert +his light into darkness.) These vapours alternately rose +and fell for twenty-eight days; but, at last, sun and fire acted +so powerfully upon the sea that they attracted a great portion of +it to themselves, and the waters of the ocean arose in the form +of vapour; thereby the waters were in some parts so corrupted +that the fish which they contained died. These corrupted +waters, however, the heat of the sun could not consume, neither +could other wholesome water, hail or snow and dew, originate +therefrom. On the contrary, this vapour spread itself +through the air in many places on the earth, and enveloped them +in fog.</p> +<p>“Such was the case all over Arabia, in a part of India, +in Crete, in the plains and valleys of Macedonia, in Hungary, +Albania, and Sicily. Should the same thing occur in +Sardinia, not a man will be left alive, and the like will +continue so long as the sun remains in the sign of Leo, on all +the islands and adjoining countries to which this corrupted +sea-wind extends, or has already extended, from India. If +the inhabitants of those parts do not employ and adhere to the +following or similar means and precepts, we announce to them +inevitable death, except the grace of Christ preserve their +lives.</p> +<p>“We are of opinion that the constellations, with the aid +of nature, strive by virtue of their Divine might, to protect and +heal the human race; and to this end, in union with the rays of +the sun, acting through the power of fire, endeavour to break +through the mist. Accordingly, within the next ten days, +and until the 17th of the ensuing month of July, this mist will +be converted into a stinking deleterious rain, whereby the air +will be much purified. Now, as soon as this rain shall +announce itself by thunder or hail, every one of you should +protect himself from the air; and, as well before as after the +rain, kindle a large fire of vine-wood, green laurel, or other +green wood; wormwood and camomile should also be burnt in great +quantity in the market-places, in other densely inhabited +localities, and in the houses. Until the earth is again +completely dry, and for three days afterwards, no one ought to go +abroad in the fields. During this time the diet should be +simple, and people should be cautious in avoiding exposure in the +cool of the evening, at night, and in the morning. Poultry +and water-fowl, young pork, old beef, and fat meat in general, +should not be eaten; but, on the contrary, meat of a proper age, +of a warm and dry, but on no account of a heating and exciting +nature. Broth should be taken, seasoned with ground pepper, +ginger, and cloves, especially by those who are accustomed to +live temperately, and are yet choice in their diet. Sleep +in the day-time is detrimental; it should be taken at night until +sunrise, or somewhat longer. At breakfast one should drink +little; supper should be taken an hour before sunset, when more +may be drunk than in the morning. Clear light wine, mixed +with a fifth or six part of water, should be used as a +beverage. Dried or fresh fruits, with wine, are not +injurious, but highly so without it. Beet-root and other +vegetables, whether eaten pickled or fresh, are hurtful; on the +contrary, spicy pot-herbs, as sage or rosemary, are +wholesome. Cold, moist, watery food in is general +prejudicial. Going out at night, and even until three +o’clock in the morning, is dangerous, on account of +dew. Only small river fish should be used. Too much +exercise is hurtful. The body should be kept warmer than +usual, and thus protected from moisture and cold. +Rain-water must not be employed in cooking, and every one should +guard against exposure to wet weather. If it rain, a little +fine treacle should be taken after dinner. Fat people +should not sit in the sunshine. Good clear wine should be +selected and drunk often, but in small quantities, by day. +Olive oil as an article of food is fatal. Equally injurious +are fasting and excessive abstemiousness, anxiety of mind, anger, +and immoderate drinking. Young people, in autumn +especially, must abstain from all these things if they do not +wish to run a risk of dying of dysentery. In order to keep +the body properly open, an enema, or some other simple means, +should be employed when necessary. Bathing is +injurious. Men must preserve chastity as they value their +lives. Every one should impress this on his recollection, +but especially those who reside on the coast, or upon an island +into which the noxious wind has penetrated.”</p> +<p>On what occasion these strange precepts were delivered can no +longer be ascertained, even if it were an object to know +it. It must be acknowledged, however, that they do not +redound to the credit either of the faculty of Paris, or of the +fourteenth century in general. This famous faculty found +themselves under the painful necessity of being wise at command, +and of firing a point-blank shot of erudition at an enemy who +enveloped himself in a dark mist, of the nature of which they had +no conception. In concealing their ignorance by +authoritative assertions, they suffered themselves, therefore, to +be misled; and while endeavouring to appear to the world with +<i>éclat</i>, only betrayed to the intelligent their +lamentable weakness. Now some might suppose that, in the +condition of the sciences of the fourteenth century, no +intelligent physicians existed; but this is altogether at +variance with the laws of human advancement, and is contradicted +by history. The real knowledge of an age is shown only in +the archives of its literature. Here alone the genius of +truth speaks audibly—here alone men of talent deposit the +results of their experience and reflection without vanity or a +selfish object. There is no ground for believing that in +the fourteenth century men of this kind were publicly questioned +regarding their views; and it is, therefore, the more necessary +that impartial history should take up their cause, and do justice +to their merits.</p> +<p>The first notice on this subject is due to a very celebrated +teacher in Perugia, Gentilis of Foligno, who, on the 18th of +June, 1348, fell a sacrifice to the plague, in the faithful +discharge of his duty. Attached to Arabian doctrines, and +to the universally respected Galen, he, in common with all his +contemporaries, believed in a putrid corruption of the blood in +the lungs and in the heart, which was occasioned by the +pestilential atmosphere, and was forthwith communicated to the +whole body. He thought, therefore, that everything depended +upon a sufficient purification of the air, by means of large +blazing fires of odoriferous wood, in the vicinity of the healthy +as well as of the sick, and also upon an appropriate manner of +living, so that the putridity might not overpower the +diseased. In conformity with notions derived from the +ancients, he depended upon bleeding and purging, at the +commencement of the attack, for the purpose of purification; +ordered the healthy to wash themselves frequently with vinegar or +wine, to sprinkle their dwellings with vinegar, and to smell +often to camphor, or other volatile substances. Hereupon he +gave, after the Arabian fashion, detailed rules, with an +abundance of different medicines, of whose healing powers +wonderful things were believed. He had little stress upon +super-lunar influences, so far as respected the malady itself; on +which account, he did not enter into the great controversies of +the astrologers, but always kept in view, as an object of medical +attention, the corruption of the blood in the lungs and +heart. He believed in a progressive infection from country +to country, according to the notions of the present day; and the +contagious power of the disease, even in the vicinity of those +affected by plague, was, in his opinion, beyond all doubt. +On this point intelligent contemporaries were all agreed; and, in +truth, it required no great genius to be convinced of so palpable +a fact. Besides, correct notions of contagion have +descended from remote antiquity, and were maintained unchanged in +the fourteenth century. So far back as the age of Plato a +knowledge of the contagious power of malignant inflammations of +the eye, of which also no physician of the Middle Ages +entertained a doubt, was general among the people; yet in modern +times surgeons have filled volumes with partial controversies on +this subject. The whole language of antiquity has adapted +itself to the notions of the people respecting the contagion of +pestilential diseases; and their terms were, beyond comparison, +more expressive than those in use among the moderns.</p> +<p>Arrangements for the protection of the healthy against +contagious diseases, the necessity of which is shown from these +notions, were regarded by the ancients as useful; and by man, +whose circumstances permitted it, were carried into effect in +their houses. Even a total separation of the sick from the +healthy, that indispensable means of protection against infection +by contact, was proposed by physicians of the second century +after Christ, in order to check the spreading of leprosy. +But it was decidedly opposed, because, as it was alleged, the +healing art ought not to be guilty of such harshness. This +mildness of the ancients, in whose manner of thinking inhumanity +was so often and so undisguisedly conspicuous, might excite +surprise if it were anything more than apparent. The true +ground of the neglect of public protection against pestilential +diseases lay in the general notion and constitution of human +society—it lay in the disregard of human life, of which the +great nations of antiquity have given proofs in every page of +their history. Let it not be supposed that they wanted +knowledge respecting the propagation of contagious +diseases. On the contrary, they were as well informed on +this subject as the modern; but this was shown where individual +property, not where human life, on the grand scale was to be +protected. Hence the ancients made a general practice of +arresting the progress of murrains among cattle by a separation +of the diseased from the healthy. Their herds alone enjoyed +that protection which they held it impracticable to extend to +human society, because they had no wish to do so. That the +governments in the fourteenth century were not yet so far +advanced as to put into practice general regulations for checking +the plague needs no especial proof. Physicians could, +therefore, only advise public purifications of the air by means +of large fires, as had often been practised in ancient times; and +they were obliged to leave it to individual families either to +seek safety in flight, or to shut themselves up in their +dwellings, a method which answers in common plagues, but which +here afforded no complete security, because such was the fury of +the disease when it was at its height, that the atmosphere of +whole cities was penetrated by the infection.</p> +<p>Of the astral influence which was considered to have +originated the “Great Mortality,” physicians and +learned men were as completely convinced as of the fact of its +reality. A grand conjunction of the three superior planets, +Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, in the sign of Aquarius, which took +place, according to Guy de Chauliac, on the 24th of March, 1345, +was generally received as its principal cause. In fixing +the day, this physician, who was deeply versed in astrology, did +not agree with others; whereupon there arose various +disputations, of weight in that age, but of none in ours. +People, however, agree in this—that conjunctions of the +planets infallibly prognosticated great events; great revolutions +of kingdoms, new prophets, destructive plagues, and other +occurrences which bring distress and horror on mankind. No +medical author of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries omits an +opportunity of representing them as among the general prognostics +of great plagues; nor can we, for our part, regard the astrology +of the Middle Ages as a mere offspring of superstition. It +has not only, in common with all ideas which inspire and guide +mankind, a high historical importance, entirely independent of +its error or truth—for the influence of both is equally +powerful—but there are also contained in it, as in alchemy, +grand thoughts of antiquity, of which modern natural philosophy +is so little ashamed that she claims them as her property. +Foremost among these is the idea of general life which diffuses +itself throughout the whole universe, expressed by the greatest +Greek sages, and transmitted to the Middle Ages, through the new +Platonic natural philosophy. To this impression of an +universal organism, the assumption of a reciprocal influence of +terrestrial bodies could not be foreign, nor did this cease to +correspond with a higher view of nature, until astrologers +overstepped the limits of human knowledge with frivolous and +mystical calculations.</p> +<p>Guy de Chauliac considers the influence of the conjunction, +which was held to be all-potent, as the chief general cause of +the Black Plague; and the diseased state of bodies, the +corruption of the fluids, debility, obstruction, and so forth, as +the especial subordinate causes. By these, according to his +opinion, the quality of the air, and of the other elements, was +so altered that they set poisonous fluids in motion towards the +inward parts of the body, in the same manner as the magnet +attracts iron; whence there arose in the commencement fever and +the spitting of blood; afterwards, however, a deposition in the +form on glandular swellings and inflammatory boils. Herein +the notion of an epidemic constitution was set forth clearly, and +conformably to the spirit of the age. Of contagion, Guy de +Chauliac was completely convinced. He sought to protect +himself against it by the usual means; and it was probably he who +advised Pope Clement VI. to shut himself up while the plague +lasted. The preservation of this Pope’s life, +however, was most beneficial to the city of Avignon, for he +loaded the poor with judicious acts of kindness, took care to +have proper attendants provided, and paid physicians himself to +afford assistance wherever human aid could avail—an +advantage which, perhaps, no other city enjoyed. Nor was +the treatment of plague-patients in Avignon by any means +objectionable; for, after the usual depletions by bleeding and +aperients, where circumstances required them, they endeavoured to +bring the buboes to suppuration; they made incisions into the +inflammatory boils, or burned them with a red-hot iron, a +practice which at all times proves salutary, and in the Black +Plague saved many lives. In this city, the Jews, who lived +in a state of the greatest filth, were most severely visited, as +also the Spaniards, whom Chalin accuses of great +intemperance.</p> +<p>Still more distinct notions on the causes of the plague were +stated to his contemporaries in the fourteenth century by +Galeazzo di Santa Sofia, a learned man, a native of Padua, who +likewise treated plague-patients at Vienna, though in what year +is undetermined. He distinguishes carefully +<i>pestilence</i> from <i>epidemy</i> and <i>endemy</i>. +The common notion of the two first accords exactly with that of +an epidemic constitution, for both consist, according to him, in +an unknown change or corruption of the air; with this difference, +that pestilence calls forth diseases of different kinds; epidemy, +on the contrary, always the same disease. As an example of +an epidemy, he adduces a cough (influenza) which was observed in +all climates at the same time without perceptible cause; but he +recognised the approach of a pestilence, independently of unusual +natural phenomena, by the more frequent occurrence of various +kinds of fever, to which the modern physicians would assign a +nervous and putrid character. The endemy originates, +according to him, only in local telluric changes—in +deleterious influences which develop themselves in the earth and +in the water, without a corruption of the air. These +notions were variously jumbled together in his time, like +everything which human understanding separates by too fine a line +of limitation. The estimation of cosmical influences, +however, in the epidemy and pestilence, is well worthy of +commendation; and Santa Sofia, in this respect, not only agrees +with the most intelligent persons of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, but he has also promulgated an opinion which must, +even now, serve as a foundation for our scarcely commenced +investigations into cosmical influences. Pestilence and +epidemy consist not in alterations of the four primary qualities, +but in a corruption of the air, powerful, though quite +immaterial, and not cognoscible by the senses—(corruptio +aëris non substantialis, sed qualitativa) in a disproportion +of the imponderables in the atmosphere, as it would be expressed +by the moderns. The causes of the pestilence and epidemy +are, first of all, astral influences, especially on occasions of +planetary conjunctions; then extensive putrefaction of animal and +vegetable bodies, and terrestrial corruptions (corruptio in +terra): to which also bad diet and want may contribute. +Santa Sofia considers the putrefaction of locusts, that had +perished in the sea and were again thrown up, combined with +astral and terrestrial influences, as the cause of the pestilence +in the eventful year of the “Great Mortality.”</p> +<p>All the fevers which were called forth by the pestilence are, +according to him, of the putrid kind; for they originate +principally from putridity of the heart’s blood, which +inevitably follows the inhalation of infected air. The +Oriental Plague is, sometimes, but by no means always occasioned +by <i>pestilence</i> (?), which imparts to it a character +(<i>qualitas occulta</i>) hostile to human nature. It +originates frequently from other causes, among which this +physician was aware that contagion was to be reckoned; and it +deserves to be remarked that he held epidemic small-pox and +measles to be infallible forerunners of the plague, as do the +physicians and people of the East at the present day.</p> +<p>In the exposition of his therapeutical views of the plague, a +clearness of intellect is again shown by Santa Sofia, which +reflects credit on the age. It seemed to him to depend, +1st, on an evacuation of putrid matters by purgatives and +bleeding; yet he did not sanction the employment of these means +indiscriminately and without consideration; least of all where +the condition of the blood was healthy. He also declared +himself decidedly against bleeding <i>ad deliquium</i> +(<i>venæ sectio eradicativa</i>). 2nd, Strengthening +of the heart and prevention of putrescence. 3rd, +Appropriate regimen. 4th, Improvement of the air. +5th, Appropriate treatment of tumid glands and inflammatory +boils, with emollient, or even stimulating poultices (mustard, +lily-bulbs), as well as with red-hot gold and iron. Lastly, +6th, Attention to prominent symptoms. The stores of the +Arabian pharmacy, which he brought into action to meet all these +indications, were indeed very considerable; it is to be observed, +however, that, for the most part, gentle means were accumulated, +which, in case of abuse, would do no harm: for the character of +the Arabian system of medicine, whose principles were everywhere +followed at this time, was mildness and caution. On this +account, too, we cannot believe that a very prolix treatise by +Marsigli di Santa Sofia, a contemporary relative of Galeazzo, on +the prevention and treatment of plague, can have caused much +harm, although perhaps, even in the fourteenth century, an +agreeable latitude and confident assertions respecting things +which no mortal has investigated, or which it is quite a matter +of indifference to distinguish, were considered as proofs of a +valuable practical talent.</p> +<p>The agreement of contemporary and later writers shows that the +published views of the most celebrated physicians of the +fourteenth century were those generally adopted. Among +these, Chalin de Vinario is the most experienced. Though +devoted to astrology still more than his distinguished +contemporary, he acknowledges the great power of terrestrial +influences, and expresses himself very sensibly on the +indisputable doctrine of contagion, endeavouring thereby to +apologise for many surgeons and physicians of his time who +neglected their duty. He asserted boldly and with truth, +“<i>that all epidemic diseases might become contagious</i>, +<i>and all fevers epidemic</i>,” which attentive observers +of all subsequent ages have confirmed.</p> +<p>He delivered his sentiments on blood-letting with sagacity, as +an experienced physician; yet he was unable, as may be imagined, +to moderate the desire for bleeding shown by the ignorant +monks. He was averse to draw blood from the veins of +patients under fourteen years of age; but counteracted +inflammatory excitement in them by cupping, and endeavoured to +moderate the inflammation of the tumid glands by leeches. +Most of those who were bled, died; he therefore reserved this +remedy for the plethoric; especially for the papal courtiers and +the hypocritical priests, whom he saw gratifying their sensual +desires, and imitating Epicurus, whilst they pompously pretended +to follow Christ. He recommended burning the boils with a +red-hot iron only in the plague without fever, which occurred in +single cases; and was always ready to correct those over-hasty +surgeons who, with fire and violent remedies, did irremediable +injury to their patients. Michael Savonarola, professor in +Ferrara (1462), reasoning on the susceptibility of the human +frame to the influence of pestilential infection, as the cause of +such various modifications of disease, expresses himself as a +modern physician would on this point; and an adoption of the +principle of contagion was the foundation of his definition of +the plague. No less worthy of observation are the views of +the celebrated Valescus of Taranta, who, during the final +visitation of the Black Death, in 1382, practised as a physician +at Montpellier, and handed down to posterity what has been +repeated in innumerable treatises on plague, which were written +during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.</p> +<p>Of all these notions and views regarding the plague, whose +development we have represented, there are two especially, which +are prominent in historical importance:—1st, The opinion of +learned physicians, that the pestilence, or epidemic +constitution, is the parent of various kinds of disease; that the +plague sometimes, indeed, but by no means always, originates from +it: that, to speak in the language of the moderns, the pestilence +bears the same relation to contagion that a predisposing cause +does to an occasional cause; and 2ndly, the universal conviction +of the contagious power of that disease.</p> +<p>Contagion gradually attracted more notice: it was thought that +in it the most powerful occasional cause might be avoided; the +possibility of protecting whole cities by separation became +gradually more evident; and so horrifying was the recollection of +the eventful year of the “Great Mortality,” that +before the close of the fourteenth century, ere the ill effects +of the Black Plague had ceased, nations endeavoured to guard +against the return of this enemy by an earnest and effectual +defence.</p> +<p>The first regulation which was issued for this purpose, +originated with Viscount Bernabo, and is dated the 17th January, +1374. “Every plague-patient was to be taken out of +the city into the fields, there to die or to recover. Those +who attended upon a plague-patient, were to remain apart for ten +days before they again associated with anybody. The priests +were to examine the diseased, and point out to special +commissioners the persons infected, under punishment of the +confiscation of their goods and of being burned alive. +Whoever imported the plague, the state condemned his goods to +confiscation. Finally, none except those who were appointed +for that purpose were to attend plague-patients, under penalty of +death and confiscation.”</p> +<p>These orders, in correspondence with the spirit of the +fourteenth century, are sufficiently decided to indicate a +recollection of the good effects of confinement, and of keeping +at a distance those suspected of having plague. It was said +that Milan itself, by a rigorous barricade of three houses in +which the plague had broken out, maintained itself free from the +“Great Mortality” for a considerable time; and +examples of the preservation of individual families, by means of +a strict separation, were certainly very frequent. That +these orders must have caused universal affliction from their +uncommon severity, as we know to have been especially the case in +the city of Reggio, may be easily conceived; but Bernabo did not +suffer himself to be deterred from his purpose by fear—on +the contrary, when the plague returned in the year 1383, he +forbade the admission of people from infected places into his +territories on pain of death. We have now, it is true, no +account how far he succeeded; yet it is to be supposed that he +arrested the disease, for it had long lost the property of the +Black Death, to spread abroad in the air the contagious matter +which proceeded from the lungs, charged with putridity, and to +taint the atmosphere of whole cities by the vast numbers of the +sick. Now that it had resumed its milder form, so that it +infected only by contact, it admitted being confined within +individual dwellings, as easily as in modern times.</p> +<p>Bernabo’s example was imitated; nor was there any +century more appropriate for recommending to governments strong +regulations against the plague that the fourteenth; for when it +broke out in Italy, in the year 1399, and still demanded new +victims, it was for the sixteenth time, without reckoning +frequent visitations of measles and small-pox. In this same +year, Viscount John, in milder terms than his predecessor, +ordered that no stranger should be admitted from infected places, +and that the city gates should be strictly guarded. +Infected houses were to be ventilated for at least eight or ten +days, and purified from noxious vapours by fires, and by +fumigations with balsamic and aromatic substances. Straw, +rags, and the like were to be burned; and the bedsteads which had +been used, set out for four days in the rain or the sunshine, so +that by means of the one or the other, the morbific vapour might +be destroyed. No one was to venture to make use of clothes +or beds out of infected dwellings unless they had been previously +washed and dried either at the fire or in the sun. People +were, likewise, to avoid, as long as possible, occupying houses +which had been frequented by plague-patients.</p> +<p>We cannot precisely perceive in these an advance towards +general regulations; and perhaps people were convinced of the +insurmountable impediments which opposed the separation of open +inland countries, where bodies of people connected together could +not be brought, even by the most obdurate severity, to renounce +the habit of profitable intercourse.</p> +<p>Doubtless it is nature which has done the most to banish the +Oriental plague from western Europe, where the increasing +cultivation of the earth, and the advancing order in civilised +society, have prevented it from remaining domesticated, which it +most probably was in the more ancient times.</p> +<p>In the fifteenth century, during which it broke out seventeen +times in different places in Europe, it was of the more +consequence to oppose a barrier to its entrance from Asia, +Africa, and Greece (which had become Turkish); for it would have +been difficult for it to maintain itself indigenously any +longer. Among the southern commercial states, however, +which were called on to make the greatest exertions to this end, +it was principally Venice, formerly so severely attacked by the +Black Plague, that put the necessary restraint upon perilous +profits of the merchant. Until towards the end of the +fifteenth century, the very considerable intercourse with the +East was free and unimpeded. Ships of commercial cities had +often brought over the plague: nay, the former irruption of the +“Great Mortality” itself had been occasioned by +navigators. For, as in the latter end of autumn, 1347, four +ships full of plague-patients returned from the Levant to Genoa, +the disease spread itself there with astonishing rapidity. +On this account, in the following year, the Genoese forbade the +entrance of suspected ships into their port. These sailed +to Pisa and other cities on the coast, where already nature had +made such mighty preparations for the reception of the Black +Plague, and what we have already described took place in +consequence.</p> +<p>In the year 1485, when, among the cities of northern Italy, +Milan especially felt the scourge of the plague, a special +Council of Health, consisting of three nobles, was established at +Venice, who probably tried everything in their power to prevent +the entrance of this disease, and gradually called into activity +all those regulations which have served in later times as a +pattern for the other southern states of Europe. Their +endeavours were, however, not crowned with complete success; on +which account their powers were increased, in the year 1504, by +granting them the right of life and death over those who violated +the regulations. Bills of health were probably first +introduced in the year 1527, during a fatal plague which visited +Italy for five years (1525-30), and called forth redoubled +caution.</p> +<p>The first lazarettos were established upon islands at some +distance from the city, seemingly as early as the year +1485. Here all strangers coming from places where the +existence of plague was suspected were detained. If it +appeared in the city itself, the sick were despatched with their +families to what was called the Old Lazaretto, were there +furnished with provisions and medicines, and when they were +cured, were detained, together with all those who had had +intercourse with them, still forty days longer in the New +Lazaretto, situated on another island. All these +regulations were every year improved, and their needful rigour +was increased, so that from the year 1585 onwards, no appeal was +allowed from the sentence of the Council of Health; and the other +commercial nations gradually came to the support of the +Venetians, by adopting corresponding regulations. Bills of +health, however, were not general until the year 1665.</p> +<p>The appointment of a forty days’ detention, whence +quarantines derive their name, was not dictated by caprice, but +probably had a medical origin, which is derivable in part from +the doctrine of critical days; for the fortieth day, according to +the most ancient notions, has been always regarded as the last of +ardent diseases, and the limit of separation between these and +those which are chronic. It was the custom to subject +lying-in women for forty days to a more exact +superintendence. There was a good deal also said in medical +works of forty-day epochs in the formation of the foetus, not to +mention that the alchemists expected more durable revolutions in +forty days, which period they called the philosophical month.</p> +<p>This period being generally held to prevail in natural +processes, it appeared reasonable to assume, and legally to +establish it, as that required for the development of latent +principles of contagion, since public regulations cannot dispense +with decisions of this kind, even though they should not be +wholly justified by the nature of the case. Great stress +has likewise been laid on theological and legal grounds, which +were certainly of greater weight in the fifteenth century than in +the modern times.</p> +<p>On this matter, however, we cannot decide, since our only +object here is to point out the origin of a political means of +protection against a disease which has been the greatest +impediment to civilisation within the memory of man; a means +that, like Jenner’s vaccine, after the small-pox had +ravaged Europe for twelve hundred years, has diminished the check +which mortality puts on the progress of civilisation, and thus +given to the life and manners of the nations of this part of the +world a new direction, the result of which we cannot +foretell.</p> +<h2>THE DANCING MANIA</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER I—THE DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE +NETHERLANDS</h3> +<h4>SECT. 1—ST. JOHN’S DANCE</h4> +<p>The effects of the Black Death had not yet subsided, and the +graves of millions of its victims were scarcely closed, when a +strange delusion arose in Germany, which took possession of the +minds of men, and, in spite of the divinity of our nature, +hurried away body and soul into the magic circle of hellish +superstition. It was a convulsion which in the most +extraordinary manner infuriated the human frame, and excited the +astonishment of contemporaries for more than two centuries, since +which time it has never reappeared. It was called the dance +of St. John or of St. Vitus, on account of the Bacchantic leaps +by which it was characterised, and which gave to those affected, +whilst performing their wild dance, and screaming and foaming +with fury, all the appearance of persons possessed. It did +not remain confined to particular localities, but was propagated +by the sight of the sufferers, like a demoniacal epidemic, over +the whole of Germany and the neighbouring countries to the +north-west, which were already prepared for its reception by the +prevailing opinions of the time.</p> +<p>So early as the year 1374, assemblages of men and women were +seen at Aix-la-Chapelle, who had come out of Germany, and who, +united by one common delusion, exhibited to the public both in +the streets and in the churches the following strange +spectacle. They formed circles hand in hand, and appearing +to have lost all control over their senses, continued dancing, +regardless of the bystanders, for hours together, in wild +delirium, until at length they fell to the ground in a state of +exhaustion. They then complained of extreme oppression, and +groaned as if in the agonies of death, until they were swathed in +cloths bound tightly round their waists, upon which they again +recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next +attack. This practice of swathing was resorted to on +account of the tympany which followed these spasmodic ravings, +but the bystanders frequently relieved patients in a less +artificial manner, by thumping and trampling upon the parts +affected. While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being +insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were +haunted by visions, their fancies conjuring up spirits whose +names they shrieked out; and some of them afterwards asserted +that they felt as if they had been immersed in a stream of blood, +which obliged them to leap so high. Others, during the +paroxysm, saw the heavens open and the Saviour enthroned with the +Virgin Mary, according as the religious notions of the age were +strangely and variously reflected in their imaginations.</p> +<p>Where the disease was completely developed, the attack +commenced with epileptic convulsions. Those affected fell +to the ground senseless, panting and labouring for breath. +They foamed at the mouth, and suddenly springing up began their +dance amidst strange contortions. Yet the malady doubtless +made its appearance very variously, and was modified by temporary +or local circumstances, whereof non-medical contemporaries but +imperfectly noted the essential particulars, accustomed as they +were to confound their observation of natural events with their +notions of the world of spirits.</p> +<p>It was but a few months ere this demoniacal disease had spread +from Aix-la-Chapelle, where it appeared in July, over the +neighbouring Netherlands. In Liege, Utrecht, Tongres, and +many other towns of Belgium, the dancers appeared with garlands +in their hair, and their waists girt with cloths, that they +might, as soon as the paroxysm was over, receive immediate relief +on the attack of the tympany. This bandage was, by the +insertion of a stick, easily twisted tight: many, however, +obtained more relief from kicks and blows, which they found +numbers of persons ready to administer: for, wherever the dancers +appeared, the people assembled in crowds to gratify their +curiosity with the frightful spectacle. At length the +increasing number of the affected excited no less anxiety than +the attention that was paid to them. In towns and villages +they took possession of the religious houses, processions were +everywhere instituted on their account, and masses were said and +hymns were sung, while the disease itself, of the demoniacal +origin of which no one entertained the least doubt, excited +everywhere astonishment and horror. In Liege the priests +had recourse to exorcisms, and endeavoured by every means in +their power to allay an evil which threatened so much danger to +themselves; for the possessed assembling in multitudes, +frequently poured forth imprecations against them, and menaced +their destruction. They intimidated the people also to such +a degree that there was an express ordinance issued that no one +should make any but square-toed shoes, because these fanatics had +manifested a morbid dislike to the pointed shoes which had come +into fashion immediately after the “Great Mortality” +in 1350. They were still more irritated at the sight of red +colours, the influence of which on the disordered nerves might +lead us to imagine an extraordinary accordance between this +spasmodic malady and the condition of infuriated animals; but in +the St. John’s dancers this excitement was probably +connected with apparitions consequent upon their +convulsions. There were likewise some of them who were +unable to endure the sight of persons weeping. The clergy +seemed to become daily more and more confirmed in their belief +that those who were affected were a kind of sectarians, and on +this account they hastened their exorcisms as much as possible, +in order that the evil might not spread amongst the higher +classes, for hitherto scarcely any but the poor had been +attacked, and the few people of respectability among the laity +and clergy who were to be found among them, were persons whose +natural frivolity was unable to withstand the excitement of +novelty, even though it proceeded from a demoniacal +influence. Some of the affected had indeed themselves +declared, when under the influence of priestly forms of exorcism, +that if the demons had been allowed only a few weeks’ more +time, they would have entered the bodies of the nobility and +princes, and through these have destroyed the clergy. +Assertions of this sort, which those possessed uttered whilst in +a state which may be compared with that of magnetic sleep, +obtained general belief, and passed from mouth to mouth with +wonderful additions. The priesthood were, on this account, +so much the more zealous in their endeavours to anticipate every +dangerous excitement of the people, as if the existing order of +things could have been seriously threatened by such incoherent +ravings. Their exertions were effectual, for exorcism was a +powerful remedy in the fourteenth century; or it might perhaps be +that this wild infatuation terminated in consequence of the +exhaustion which naturally ensued from it; at all events, in the +course of ten or eleven months the St. John’s dancers were +no longer to be found in any of the cities of Belgium. The +evil, however, was too deeply rooted to give way altogether to +such feeble attacks.</p> +<p>A few months after this dancing malady had made its appearance +at Aix-la-Chapelle, it broke out at Cologne, where the number of +those possessed amounted to more than five hundred, and about the +same time at Metz, the streets of which place are said to have +been filled with eleven hundred dancers. Peasants left +their ploughs, mechanics their workshops, housewives their +domestic duties, to join the wild revels, and this rich +commercial city became the scene of the most ruinous +disorder. Secret desires were excited, and but too often +found opportunities for wild enjoyment; and numerous beggars, +stimulated by vice and misery, availed themselves of this new +complaint to gain a temporary livelihood. Girls and boys +quitted their parents, and servants their masters, to amuse +themselves at the dances of those possessed, and greedily imbibed +the poison of mental infection. Above a hundred unmarried +women were seen raving about in consecrated and unconsecrated +places, and the consequences were soon perceived. Gangs of +idle vagabonds, who understood how to imitate to the life the +gestures and convulsions of those really affected, roved from +place to place seeking maintenance and adventures, and thus, +wherever they went, spreading this disgusting spasmodic disease +like a plague; for in maladies of this kind the susceptible are +infected as easily by the appearance as by the reality. At +last it was found necessary to drive away these mischievous +guests, who were equally inaccessible to the exorcisms of the +priests and the remedies of the physicians. It was not, +however, until after four months that the Rhenish cities were +able to suppress these impostures, which had so alarmingly +increased the original evil. In the meantime, when once +called into existence, the plague crept on, and found abundant +food in the tone of thought which prevailed in the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, and even, though in a minor degree, +throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth, causing a permanent +disorder of the mind, and exhibiting in those cities to whose +inhabitants it was a novelty, scenes as strange as they were +detestable.</p> +<h4>SECT. 2—ST. VITUS’S DANCE</h4> +<p>Strasburg was visited by the “Dancing Plague” in +the year 1418, and the same infatuation existed among the people +there, as in the towns of Belgium and the Lower Rhine. Many +who were seized at the sight of those affected, excited attention +at first by their confused and absurd behaviour, and then by +their constantly following swarms of dancers. These were +seen day and night passing through the streets, accompanied by +musicians playing on bagpipes, and by innumerable spectators +attracted by curiosity, to which were added anxious parents and +relations, who came to look after those among the misguided +multitude who belonged to their respective families. +Imposture and profligacy played their part in this city also, but +the morbid delusion itself seems to have predominated. On +this account religion could only bring provisional aid, and +therefore the town council benevolently took an interest in the +afflicted. They divided them into separate parties, to each +of which they appointed responsible superintendents to protect +them from harm, and perhaps also to restrain their +turbulence. They were thus conducted on foot and in +carriages to the chapels of St. Vitus, near Zabern and Rotestein, +where priests were in attendance to work upon their misguided +minds by masses and other religious ceremonies. After +divine worship was completed, they were led in solemn procession +to the altar, where they made some small offering of alms, and +where it is probable that many were, through the influence of +devotion and the sanctity of the place, cured of this lamentable +aberration. It is worthy of observation, at all events, +that the Dancing Mania did not recommence at the altars of the +saint, and that from him alone assistance was implored, and +through his miraculous interposition a cure was expected, which +was beyond the reach of human skill. The personal history +of St. Vitus is by no means important in this matter. He +was a Sicilian youth, who, together with Modestus and Crescentia, +suffered martyrdom at the time of the persecution of the +Christians, under Diocletian, in the year 303. The legends +respecting him are obscure, and he would certainly have been +passed over without notice among the innumerable apocryphal +martyrs of the first centuries, had not the transfer of his body +to St. Denys, and thence, in the year 836, to Corvey, raised him +to a higher rank. From this time forth it may be supposed +that many miracles were manifested at his new sepulchre, which +were of essential service in confirming the Roman faith among the +Germans, and St. Vitus was soon ranked among the fourteen saintly +helpers (Nothhelfer or Apotheker). His altars were +multiplied, and the people had recourse to them in all kinds of +distresses, and revered him as a powerful intercessor. As +the worship of these saints was, however, at that time stripped +of all historical connections, which were purposely obliterated +by the priesthood, a legend was invented at the beginning of the +fifteenth century, or perhaps even so early as the fourteenth, +that St. Vitus had, just before he bent his neck to the sword, +prayed to God that he might protect from the Dancing Mania all +those who should solemnise the day of his commemoration, and fast +upon its eve, and that thereupon a voice from heaven was heard, +saying, “Vitus, thy prayer is accepted.” Thus +St. Vitus became the patron saint of those afflicted with the +Dancing Plague, as St. Martin of Tours was at one time the +succourer of persons in small-pox, St. Antonius of those +suffering under the “hellish fire,” and as St. +Margaret was the Juno Lucina of puerperal women.</p> +<h4>SECT. 3—CAUSES</h4> +<p>The connection which John the Baptist had with the Dancing +Mania of the fourteenth century was of a totally different +character. He was originally far from being a protecting +saint to those who were attacked, or one who would be likely to +give them relief from a malady considered as the work of the +devil. On the contrary, the manner in which he was +worshipped afforded an important and very evident cause for its +development. From the remotest period, perhaps even so far +back as the fourth century, St. John’s day was solemnised +with all sorts of strange and rude customs, of which the +originally mystical meaning was variously disfigured among +different nations by superadded relics of heathenism. Thus +the Germans transferred to the festival of St. John’s day +an ancient heathen usage, the kindling of the +“Nodfyr,” which was forbidden them by St. Boniface, +and the belief subsists even to the present day that people and +animals that have leaped through these flames, or their smoke, +are protected for a whole year from fevers and other diseases, as +if by a kind of baptism by fire. Bacchanalian dances, which +have originated in similar causes among all the rude nations of +the earth, and the wild extravagancies of a heated imagination, +were the constant accompaniments of this half-heathen, +half-Christian festival. At the period of which we are +treating, however, the Germans were not the only people who gave +way to the ebullitions of fanaticism in keeping the festival of +St. John the Baptist. Similar customs were also to be found +among the nations of Southern Europe and of Asia, and it is more +than probable that the Greeks transferred to the festival of John +the Baptist, who is also held in high esteem among the +Mahomedans, a part of their Bacchanalian mysteries, an absurdity +of a kind which is but too frequently met with in human +affairs. How far a remembrance of the history of St. +John’s death may have had an influence on this occasion, we +would leave learned theologians to decide. It is only of +importance here to add that in Abyssinia, a country entirely +separated from Europe, where Christianity has maintained itself +in its primeval simplicity against Mahomedanism, John is to this +day worshipped, as protecting saint of those who are attacked +with the dancing malady. In these fragments of the dominion +of mysticism and superstition, historical connection is not to be +found.</p> +<p>When we observe, however, that the first dancers in +Aix-la-Chapelle appeared in July with St. John’s name in +their mouths, the conjecture is probable that the wild revels of +St. John’s day, A.D. 1374, gave rise to this mental plague, +which thenceforth has visited so many thousands with incurable +aberration of mind, and disgusting distortions of body.</p> +<p>This is rendered so much the more probable because some months +previously the districts in the neighbourhood of the Rhine and +the Main had met with great disasters. So early as +February, both these rivers had overflowed their banks to a great +extent; the walls of the town of Cologne, on the side next the +Rhine, had fallen down, and a great many villages had been +reduced to the utmost distress. To this was added the +miserable condition of western and southern Germany. +Neither law nor edict could suppress the incessant feuds of the +Barons, and in Franconia especially, the ancient times of club +law appeared to be revived. Security of property there was +none; arbitrary will everywhere prevailed; corruption of morals +and rude power rarely met with even a feeble opposition; whence +it arose that the cruel, but lucrative, persecutions of the Jews +were in many places still practised through the whole of this +century with their wonted ferocity. Thus, throughout the +western parts of Germany, and especially in the districts +bordering on the Rhine, there was a wretched and oppressed +populace; and if we take into consideration that among their +numerous bands many wandered about, whose consciences were +tormented with the recollection of the crimes which they had +committed during the prevalence of the Black Plague, we shall +comprehend how their despair sought relief in the intoxication of +an artificial delirium. There is hence good ground for +supposing that the frantic celebration of the festival of St. +John, A.D. 1374, only served to bring to a crisis a malady which +had been long impending; and if we would further inquire how a +hitherto harmless usage, which like many others had but served to +keep up superstition, could degenerate into so serious a disease, +we must take into account the unusual excitement of men’s +minds, and the consequences of wretchedness and want. The +bowels, which in many were debilitated by hunger and bad food, +were precisely the parts which in most cases were attacked with +excruciating pain, and the tympanitic state of the intestines +points out to the intelligent physician an origin of the disorder +which is well worth consideration.</p> +<h4>SECT. 4—MORE ANCIENT DANCING PLAGUES</h4> +<p>The Dancing Mania of the year 1374 was, in fact, no new +disease, but a phenomenon well known in the Middle Ages, of which +many wondrous stories were traditionally current among the +people. In the year 1237 upwards of a hundred children were +said to have been suddenly seized with this disease at Erfurt, +and to have proceeded dancing and jumping along the road to +Arnstadt. When they arrived at that place they fell +exhausted to the ground, and, according to an account of an old +chronicle, many of them, after they were taken home by their +parents, died, and the rest remained affected, to the end of +their lives, with a permanent tremor. Another occurrence +was related to have taken place on the Moselle Bridge at Utrecht, +on the 17th day of June, A.D. 1278, when two hundred fanatics +began to dance, and would not desist until a priest passed, who +was carrying the Host to a person that was sick, upon which, as +if in punishment of their crime, the bridge gave way, and they +were all drowned. A similar event also occurred so early as +the year 1027, near the convent church of Kolbig, not far from +Bernburg. According to an oft-repeated tradition, eighteen +peasants, some of whose names are still preserved, are said to +have disturbed divine service on Christmas Eve by dancing and +brawling in the churchyard, whereupon the priest, Ruprecht, +inflicted a curse upon them, that they should dance and scream +for a whole year without ceasing. This curse is stated to +have been completely fulfilled, so that the unfortunate sufferers +at length sank knee-deep into the earth, and remained the whole +time without nourishment, until they were finally released by the +intercession of two pious bishops. It is said that, upon +this, they fell into a deep sleep, which lasted three days, and +that four of them died; the rest continuing to suffer all their +lives from a trembling of their limbs. It is not worth +while to separate what may have been true, and what the addition +of crafty priests, in this strangely distorted story. It is +sufficient that it was believed, and related with astonishment +and horror, throughout the Middle Ages; so that when there was +any exciting cause for this delirious raving and wild rage for +dancing, it failed not to produce its effects upon men whose +thoughts were given up to a belief in wonders and +apparitions.</p> +<p>This disposition of mind, altogether so peculiar to the Middle +Ages, and which, happily for mankind, has yielded to an improved +state of civilisation and the diffusion of popular instruction, +accounts for the origin and long duration of this extraordinary +mental disorder. The good sense of the people recoiled with +horror and aversion from this heavy plague, which, whenever +malevolent persons wished to curse their bitterest enemies and +adversaries, was long after used as a malediction. The +indignation also that was felt by the people at large against the +immorality of the age, was proved by their ascribing this +frightful affliction to the inefficacy of baptism by unchaste +priests, as if innocent children were doomed to atone, in +after-years, for this desecration of the sacrament administered +by unholy hands. We have already mentioned what perils the +priests in the Netherlands incurred from this belief. They +now, indeed, endeavoured to hasten their reconciliation with the +irritated, and, at that time, very degenerate people, by +exorcisms, which, with some, procured them greater respect than +ever, because they thus visibly restored thousands of those who +were affected. In general, however, there prevailed a want +of confidence in their efficacy, and then the sacred rites had as +little power in arresting the progress of this deeply-rooted +malady as the prayers and holy services subsequently had at the +altars of the greatly-revered martyr St. Vitus. We may +therefore ascribe it to accident merely, and to a certain +aversion to this demoniacal disease, which seemed to lie beyond +the reach of human skill, that we meet with but few and imperfect +notices of the St. Vitus’s dance in the second half of the +fifteenth century. The highly-coloured descriptions of the +sixteenth century contradict the notion that this mental plague +had in any degree diminished in its severity, and not a single +fact is to be found which supports the opinion that any one of +the essential symptoms of the disease, not even excepting the +tympany, had disappeared, or that the disorder itself had become +milder in its attacks. The physicians never, as it seems, +throughout the whole of the fifteenth century, undertook the +treatment of the Dancing Mania, which, according to the +prevailing notions, appertained exclusively to the servants of +the Church. Against demoniacal disorders they had no +remedies, and though some at first did promulgate the opinion +that the malady had its origin in natural circumstances, such as +a hot temperament, and other causes named in the phraseology of +the schools, yet these opinions were the less examined as it did +not appear worth while to divide with a jealous priesthood the +care of a host of fanatical vagabonds and beggars.</p> +<h4>SECT. 5—PHYSICIANS</h4> +<p>It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that +the St. Vitus’s dance was made the subject of medical +research, and stripped of its unhallowed character as a work of +demons. This was effected by Paracelsus, that mighty but, +as yet, scarcely comprehended reformer of medicine, whose aim it +was to withdraw diseases from the pale of miraculous +interpositions and saintly influences, and explain their causes +upon principles deduced from his knowledge of the human +frame. “We will not, however, admit that the saints +have power to inflict diseases, and that these ought to be named +after them, although many there are who, in their theology, lay +great stress on this supposition, ascribing them rather to God +than to nature, which is but idle talk. We dislike such +nonsensical gossip as is not supported by symptoms, but only by +faith—a thing which is not human, whereon the gods +themselves set no value.”</p> +<p>Such were the words which Paracelsus addressed to his +contemporaries, who were, as yet, incapable of appreciating +doctrines of this sort; for the belief in enchantment still +remained everywhere unshaken, and faith in the world of spirits +still held men’s minds in so close a bondage that thousands +were, according to their own conviction, given up as a prey to +the devil; while at the command of religion, as well as of law, +countless piles were lighted, by the flames of which human +society was to be purified.</p> +<p>Paracelsus divides the St. Vitus’s dance into three +kinds. First, that which arises from imagination +(<i>Vitista</i>, <i>Chorea imaginativa</i>, +<i>æstimativa</i>), by which the original Dancing Plague is +to be understood. Secondly, that which arises from sensual +desires, depending on the will (<i>Chorea lasciva</i>). +Thirdly, that which arises from corporeal causes (Chorea +naturalis, coacta), which, according to a strange notion of his +own, he explained by maintaining that in certain vessels which +are susceptible of an internal pruriency, and thence produce +laughter, the blood is set in commotion in consequence of an +alteration in the vital spirits, whereby involuntary fits of +intoxicating joy and a propensity to dance are occasioned. +To this notion he was, no doubt, led from having observed a +milder form of St. Vitus’s dance, not uncommon in his time, +which was accompanied by involuntary laughter; and which bore a +resemblance to the hysterical laughter of the moderns, except +that it was characterised by more pleasurable sensations and by +an extravagant propensity to dance. There was no howling, +screaming, and jumping, as in the severer form; neither was the +disposition to dance by any means insuperable. Patients +thus affected, although they had not a complete control over +their understandings, yet were sufficiently self-possessed during +the attack to obey the directions which they received. +There were even some among them who did not dance at all, but +only felt an involuntary impulse to allay the internal sense of +disquietude, which is the usual forerunner of an attack of this +kind, by laughter and quick walking carried to the extent of +producing fatigue. This disorder, so different from the +original type, evidently approximates to the modern chorea; or, +rather, is in perfect accordance with it, even to the less +essential symptom of laughter. A mitigation in the form of +the Dancing Mania had thus clearly taken place at the +commencement of the sixteenth century.</p> +<p>On the communication of the St. Vitus’s dance by +sympathy, Paracelsus, in his peculiar language, expresses himself +with great spirit, and shows a profound knowledge of the nature +of sensual impressions, which find their way to the +heart—the seat of joys and emotions—which overpower +the opposition of reason; and whilst “all other qualities +and natures” are subdued, incessantly impel the patient, in +consequence of his original compliance, and his all-conquering +imagination, to imitate what he has seen. On his treatment +of the disease we cannot bestow any great praise, but must be +content with the remark that it was in conformity with the +notions of the age in which he lived. For the first kind, +which often originated in passionate excitement, he had a mental +remedy, the efficacy of which is not to be despised, if we +estimate its value in connection with the prevalent opinions of +those times. The patient was to make an image of himself in +wax or resin, and by an effort of thought to concentrate all his +blasphemies and sins in it. “Without the intervention +of any other persons, to set his whole mind and thoughts +concerning these oaths in the image;” and when he had +succeeded in this, he was to burn the image, so that not a +particle of it should remain. In all this there was no +mention made of St. Vitus, or any of the other mediatory saints, +which is accounted for by the circumstance that at this time an +open rebellion against the Romish Church had begun, and the +worship of saints was by many rejected as idolatrous. For +the second kind of St. Vitus’s dance, arising from sensual +irritation, with which women were far more frequently affected +than men, 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 uncomfortable 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 +exposition of peculiar principles than suits our present +purpose.</p> +<h4>SECT. 6—DECLINE AND TERMINATION OF THE DANCING +PLAGUE</h4> +<p>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 symptoms 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, 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. 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, continuing 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, or rushed headlong into rapid rivers, where they found +a watery grave. Roaring and foaming as they were, the +bystanders 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-revived 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 exhaustion of the body. +Thus the attacks themselves were in these cases, as in their +nature they are in all nervous complaints, necessary 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 derangement of the system +was perceptible from the secretion of flatus in the +intestines.</p> +<p>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 capable 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 infrequent 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 intellectual of all the +organs, than through any 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. At the same +time there was a 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 confidential attendants to accompany +them, and to take care that they did no harm either to themselves +or others. This extraordinary disease 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 referable to the prevailing +notions of that period, that if the unqualified belief in the +supernatural 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 dejected, 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 Wasenweiler; and it is probable that in the south-west +of Germany the disease was still in existence in the seventeenth +century.</p> +<p>However, it grew every year more rare, so that at the +beginning of the seventeenth century it was observed only +occasionally in its ancient form. Thus in the spring of the +year 1623, G. Horst saw some women who annually performed a +pilgrimage to St. Vitus’s chapel at Drefelhausen, near +Weissenstein, in the territory 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. Many concurrent +testimonies serve to show that music generally contributed much +to the continuance 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, however, employed +to calm the excitement of those affected, and it is mentioned as +a character of the tunes played with this view to the 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. It is to be regretted that no trace of this music +has reached out times, which is owing partly to the disastrous +events of the seventeenth century, and partly to the circumstance +that the disorder was looked upon as entirely national, and only +incidentally considered 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 animosity, 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.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER II—THE DANCING MANIA IN ITALY</h3> +<h4>SECT. 1—TARANTISM</h4> +<p>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 either excused or commanded it as a religious +duty. Thus, passing over the innumerable 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 extraordinary species of +insanity, 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 writer +who is equally well acquainted with the middle ages as with +antiquity is still a desideratum. We leave it for the +present without further notice, and turn to a malady most +extraordinary in all its phenomena, having a close connection +with the St. Vitus’s 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.</p> +<h4>SECT. 2—MOST ANCIENT TRACES—CAUSES</h4> +<p>The learned Nicholas Perotti 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, said to be poisonous, and +invested by credulity with such extraordinary qualities, that, +like the serpent of the Mosaic account of the Creation, it +personified, in the imaginations of the vulgar, the notion of +cunning, so that even the jurists designated a cunning fraud by +the appellation of a “stellionatus.” Perotti +expressly assures us that this reptile was called by the Romans +tarantula; and since he himself, who was one of the most +distinguished 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 +ασκαλ +βωτης, it is the less extraordinary +that the unlearned country people of Apulia should confound the +much-dreaded ground-spider with the fabulous star-lizard, and +appropriate to the one the name of the other. The +derivation of the word tarantula, from the city of Tarentum, or +the river Thara, in Apulia, on the banks of which this insect is +said to have been most frequently found, or, at least, its bite +to have had the most venomous effect, seems not to be supported +by authority. So much for the name of this famous spider, +which, unless we are greatly mistaken, throws no light whatever +upon the nature of the disease in question. Naturalists +who, possessing a knowledge of the past, should not misapply +their talents by employing them in establishing the dry +distinction of forms, would find here much that calls for +research, and their efforts would clear up many a perplexing +obscurity.</p> +<p>Perotti states that the tarantula—that is, the spider so +called—was not met with in Italy in former times, but that +in his day it had become common, especially in Apulia, as well as +in some other districts. He deserves, however, no great +confidence as a naturalist, notwithstanding his having delivered +lectures in Bologna on medicine and other sciences. He at +least has neglected to prove his assertion, which is not borne +out by any analogous phenomenon observed in modern times with +regard to the history of the spider species. It is by no +means to be admitted that the tarantula did not make its +appearance in Italy before the disease ascribed to its bite +became remarkable, even though tempests more violent than those +unexampled storms which arose at the time of the Black Death in +the middle of the fourteenth century had set the insect world in +motion; for the spider is little if at all susceptible of those +cosmical influences which at times multiply locusts and other +winged insects to a wonderful extent, and compel them to +migrate.</p> +<p>The symptoms which Perotti enumerates as consequent on the +bite of the tarantula agree very exactly with those described by +later writers. Those who were bitten, generally fell into a +state of melancholy, and appeared to be stupefied, and scarcely +in possession of their senses. This condition was, in many +cases, united with so great a sensibility to music, that at the +very first tones of their favourite melodies they sprang up, +shouting for joy, and danced on without intermission, until they +sank to the ground exhausted and almost lifeless. In +others, the disease did not take this cheerful turn. They +wept constantly, and as if pining away with some unsatisfied +desire, spent their days in the greatest misery and +anxiety. Others, again, in morbid fits of love, cast their +longing looks on women, and instances of death are recorded, +which are said to have occurred under a paroxysm of either +laughing or weeping.</p> +<p>From this description, incomplete as it is, we may easily +gather that tarantism, the essential symptoms of which are +mentioned in it, could not have originated in the fifteenth +century, to which Perotti’s account refers; for that author +speaks of it as a well-known malady, and states that the omission +to notice it by older writers was to be ascribed solely to the +want of education in Apulia, the only province probably where the +disease at that time prevailed. A nervous disorder that had +arrived at so high a degree of development must have been long in +existence, and doubtless had required an elaborate preparation by +the concurrence of general causes.</p> +<p>The symptoms which followed the bite of venomous spiders were +well known to the ancients, and had excited the attention of +their best observers, who agree in their descriptions of +them. It is probable that among the numerous species of +their phalangium, the Apulian tarantula is included, but it is +difficult to determine this point with certainty, more especially +because in Italy the tarantula was not the only insect which +caused this nervous affection, similar results being likewise +attributed to the bite of the scorpion. Lividity of the +whole body, as well as of the countenance, difficulty of speech, +tremor of the limbs, icy coldness, pale urine, depression of +spirits, headache, a flow of tears, nausea, vomiting, sexual +excitement, flatulence, syncope, dysuria, watchfulness, lethargy, +even death itself, were cited by them as the consequences 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.</p> +<p>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 Aëtius, 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 memorable course of this disease arising from poison, and +merely repeats the observations of his Greek predecessors. +Gariopontus, a Salernian physician of the eleventh century, was +the first to describe 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 perchance a sword was at hand, they +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 instrument 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 no doubt the +Enthusiasmus of the Greek physicians. 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 +circumstances which existed from the twelfth to the end of the +fourteenth century; for the origin of tarantism itself is +referable, with the utmost probability, to a period between the +middle and the end of this century, and is consequently +contemporaneous with that of the St. Vitus’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 +innumerable 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 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 disgusting disease, the +leprosy, which, in consequence of the Crusades, spread its +insinuating poison in all directions, snatched from the 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, which spread boundless devastation and misery over +Italy. Men’s minds were everywhere morbidly +sensitive; and as it happened 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, +gave rise in them to severe diseases, so was it with this whole +nation, at all times so alive to emotions, and at that period so +sorely oppressed with the horrors of death.</p> +<p>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, increasing in severity as it took a wider range, and +still further extending its ravages from its long +continuance. Thus, from the middle of the fourteenth +century, the furies of <i>the Dance</i> brandished their scourge +over afflicted mortals; and music, for which the inhabitants of +Italy, now probably for the first time, manifested susceptibility +and talent, became capable of exciting ecstatic attacks in those +affected, and then furnished the magical means of exorcising +their melancholy.</p> +<h4>SECT. 3—INCREASE</h4> +<p>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 inflicted, 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. At the sound +of these instruments they awoke as it were by enchantment, opened +their eyes, and moving slowly at first, according to the measure +of the music, were, as the time quickened, 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 over-strained spirits. Cities and +villages alike resounded throughout the summer season with the +notes of fifes, clarinets, and Turkish drums; and patients were +everywhere to be met with who looked to dancing as their only +remedy. Alexander ab Alexandro, who gives this account, saw +a young man in a remote village who was seized with a violent +attack of tarantism. He listened with eagerness and a fixed +stare to the sound of a drum, and his graceful movements +gradually became more and more violent, until his dancing was +converted into a succession of frantic leaps, which required the +utmost exertion of his whole strength. In the midst of this +over-strained exertion of mind and body the music suddenly +ceased, and he immediately fell powerless to the ground, where he +lay senseless and motionless until its magical effect again +aroused him to a renewal of his impassioned performances.</p> +<p>At the period of which we are treating there was a general +conviction, 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 by 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 degrees 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 dances of the preceding year, they, like the +St. Vitus’s dancers of the same period before St. +Vitus’s day, again grew dejected and misanthropic, until, +by music and dancing, they dispelled the melancholy which had +become with them a kind of sensual enjoyment.</p> +<p>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, but from +the mental poison which they eagerly received through the eye; +and thus the cure of the tarantati gradually became established +as a regular festival of the populace, which was anticipated with +impatient delight.</p> +<p>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, who is worthy of entire +confidence, gives his account as an eye-witness. He saw the +same extraordinary effects produced by music as Alexandro, for, +however 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 made +an impression on them—but this was the case only with the +tarantellas composed 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 +hour together without fatigue, until, covered with a kindly +perspiration, they felt a salutary degree of lassitude, which +relieved them for a time at least, perhaps even for a whole year, +from their defection and oppressive feeling of general +indisposition. Alexandro’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 +payers 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 exhaustion was produced; for it was +better to pay a few extra musicians, who might relieve each +other, than to permit the patient, in the midst of this curative +exercise, to relapse into so deplorable a state of +suffering. The attack consequent upon the bite of the +tarantula, Matthioli describes as varying much in its +manner. 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 uncommon occurrence, not to mention the +usual dejection of spirits and other subordinate symptoms.</p> +<h4>SECT. 4—IDIOSYNCRASIES—MUSIC</h4> +<p>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. Even women scorned all female delicacy, 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 modern times, the disease +disappeared.</p> +<p>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 bystanders. Some +preferred yellow, others black colours, of which an explanation +was sought, according to the prevailing notions of the times, in +the difference of temperaments. Others, 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 completely overwhelmed by the inebriating impression +on their senses.</p> +<p>The dancing fits of a certain Capuchin friar in Tarentum +excited 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, +perceived 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 frenzy of a love fit.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, marked this peculiar +longing, which was moreover expressed by significant music, and +was excited even by the bare mention of the sea. Some, in +whom this susceptibility was carried to the greatest pitch, cast +themselves with blind fury into the blue waves, 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 feeling. They were delighted also +when, in the midst of the space allotted 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. 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 alleviate the misery of their +condition; not to mention an endless variety of other symptoms +which showed the perverted action of the nerves.</p> +<p>All these modes of relief, however, were as nothing in +comparison with the irresistible charms of musical sound. +Attempts had indeed been made in ancient times to mitigate the +pain of sciatica, or the paroxysms of mania, 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 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 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. It was much more common, 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. It was +customary, therefore, so early as the commencement of the +seventeenth 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 +“the women’s little carnival,” 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 employments 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.</p> +<p>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 idiosyncrasies of +the mind as expressed in the countenance. 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 the shoulder. This was the slowest +and least in vogue of all. For those who loved water they +took care to select love songs, which were sung to corresponding +music, and such persons delighted in hearing of gushing springs +and rushing cascades and streams. 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 century.</p> +<p>The music was almost wholly in the Turkish style (aria +Turchesca), 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 indicated their +displeasure by violent gestures expressive of aversion. +They could not endure false notes, and it is remarkable that +uneducated boors, who had never in their lives manifested any +perception of the enchanting power of harmony, acquired, in this +respect, an extremely refined sense of hearing, as if they had +been initiated into the profoundest secrets of the musical +art. It was a matter of every day’s experience, that +patients showed a predilection 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 trumpet, others for +the softest music produced by the vibration of strings.</p> +<p>Tarantism was at its greatest height in Italy in the +seventeenth century, long after the St. Vitus’s Dance of +Germany had disappeared. It 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. +Against the effects produced by the tarantula’s bite, or by +the sight of the sufferers, neither youth nor age afforded 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. +Ferdinando saw a boy five years old seized with the dancing +mania, in consequence of the bite of a tarantula, and, what is +almost past belief, were it not supported by the testimony of so +credible an eye-witness, 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.</p> +<p>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 subject of them; so +that they did not recover their natural heat until they had +engaged in violent dancing. Their anguish and sense of +oppression forced from them a cold perspiration; the secretion +from the kidneys was pale, 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 by it, or in the slightest degree +intoxicated. 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, and their great thirst +for wine may therefore in some measure be attributable to the +want of a more nutritious diet; yet the disorder 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, vertigo, complete insanity, +with sleeplessness, frequent weeping without any ostensible +cause, were all usual symptoms. Many patients found relief +from being placed in swings or rocked in cradles; others required +to be roused from their state of suffering by severe blows on the +soles of their feet; others beat themselves, without any +intention 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, like +those of the St. John’s dancers, while the violence of the +intestinal disorder was indicated in others by obstinate +constipation or diarrhoea and vomiting. 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 Lycanthropes of former times.</p> +<p>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 of all kinds of animal poisons, and the dying +man was, as if by a miracle, restored to life and the power of +speech. 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 tarantula’s bite, and so long +did that mental affection continue to exist, after it had ceased +to depend on any corporeal excitement.</p> +<p>Wherever we turn, we find that this morbid state of mind +prevailed, and was so supported by the opinions of the age, that +it needed only a stimulus in the bite of the tarantula, and the +supposed 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 imagination. 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, +compelled to dance. Others among the clergy, who wished to +shut their ears against music, because they considered dancing +derogatory 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 unwelcome but sole means of cure. Thus it +appears that the age was so little favourable to freedom of +thought, that even the most decided sceptics, incapable of +guarding themselves against the recollection of what had been +presented to the eye, were subdued by a poison, the powers of +which they had ridiculed, and which was in itself inert in its +effect.</p> +<h4>SECT. 5—HYSTERIA</h4> +<p>Different characteristics of the 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 reflected. 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 existence. Cheerfulness and an +inclination to sensual pleasures passed into compulsory idleness, +and, in many, into black despondency. 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, namely, that many chlorotic +females, by joining the dancers at the Carnevaletto, were freed +from their spasms and oppression of breathing for the whole year, +although the corporeal cause of their malady was not +removed. After such a result, no one could call their +self-deception a mere imposture, and unconditionally condemn it +as such.</p> +<p>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 +condition. Many of them exposed themselves in the most +indecent 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.</p> +<p>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. 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 appears, +from concurrent accounts, that women by no means enjoyed the +distinction of being attacked by tarantism more frequently than +men.</p> +<p>It is said that the cicatrix of the tarantula bite, on the +yearly or half-yearly return of the fit, became discoloured, but +on this point the distinct testimony of good observers is wanting +to deprive the assertion of its utter improbability.</p> +<p>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 +likewise 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 foregoing 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 wounded person with milk, and +then, by a violent rotatory motion in a suspended box, compelled +him to vomit.</p> +<h4>SECT. 6—DECREASE</h4> +<p>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. He repeats all the +observations of Ferdinando, and supports his own assertions by +the experience of his father, a physician at Lecce, whose +testimony, as an eye-witness, may be admitted as +unexceptionable.</p> +<p>The immediate consequences of the tarantula bite, the +supervening nervous disorder, and the aberrations and fits of +those who suffered from hysteria, he describes in a masterly +style, not does he ever suffer his credulity to diminish the +authenticity of his account, of which he has been unjustly +accused by later writers.</p> +<p>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 grew more frequent, +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 existed, bears, in certain cases, to the +original dancing mania of the dancers of St. John.</p> +<p>To conclude. Tarantism, as a real disease, has been +denied in toto, and stigmatised 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 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 instances of fraud and +dissimulation, such as are found in connection 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. 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. 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; but this no more disproves +the reality 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 magnetism. Other physicians and naturalists have +delivered their sentiments on tarantism, but as they have not +possessed an enlarged knowledge of its history their views do not +merit particular exposition. It is sufficient for the +comprehension of everyone that we have presented the facts from +all extraneous speculation.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER III—THE DANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINIA</h3> +<h4>SECT. 1—TIGRETIER</h4> +<p>Both the St. Vitus’s dance and tarantism belonged to the +ages in which they appeared. They could not have existed +under 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 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 similar ecstasy, with the +same violent effect on the nerves of motion. It occurs most +frequently in the Tigre country, being thence call Tigretier, and +is probably the same malady which is called in Ethiopian language +Astaragaza. On this subject we will introduce the testimony +of Nathaniel Pearce, an eye-witness, who resided nine years in +Abyssinia. “The Tigretier,” he 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 expense 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, 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 perform the following most extraordinary ceremony.</p> +<p>“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 +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 understand 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.</p> +<p>“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 +shoulders 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 symptom of being tired, though the +musicians were thoroughly exhausted; and when they stopped to +refresh themselves by drinking and resting a little she would +discover signs of discontent.</p> +<p>“Next day, according to the custom in the cure of this +disorder, 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 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 baptised 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 before they can be cured, and +it sometimes happens that they cannot be cured at all. I +have seen them in these fits dance with a <i>bruly</i>, or bottle +of maize, upon their heads without spilling the liquor, or +letting the bottle fall, although they have put themselves into +the most extravagant postures.</p> +<p>“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, who was seized with the same +disorder, 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 longer time to cure my wife than the woman +I have just given an account of. One day I went privately, +with a companion, to see my wife dance, and kept at a short +distance, as I was ashamed to go near the crowd. On looking +steadfastly 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 he +could scarcely refrain all the way home. Men are sometimes +afflicted with this dreadful disorder, but not frequently. +Among the Amhara and Galla it is not so common.”</p> +<p>Such is the account of Pearce, who is every way worthy of +credit, and whose lively description renders the traditions of +former times respecting the St. Vitus’s dance and tarantism +intelligible, even to those who are sceptical respecting the +existence of a morbid state of the mind and body of the kind +described, because, in the present advanced state of civilisation +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 education, he had no knowledge of the +phenomena in question, and his work evinces throughout his +attractive and unpretending impartiality.</p> +<p>Comparison is the mother of observation, and may here +elucidate one phenomenon by another—the past by that which +still exists. Oppression, insecurity, and the influence of +a very rude priestcraft, are the powerful causes which operated +on the Germans and Italians of the Middle Ages, as they now +continue to operate on the Abyssinians of the present day. +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 conditions of the Abyssinians +of modern times is, in regard to superstition, a mirror of the +condition of the European nations of the middle ages. +Should this appear a bold assertion it will be strengthened by +the fact that in Abyssinia two examples of superstitions occur +which are completely in accordance with occurrences of the Middle +Ages that took place contemporarily with the dancing mania. +<i>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</i>. +Their flagellants are called Zackarys. They are united into +a separate Christian fraternity, and make their processions +through the towns and villages with great noise and tumult, +scourging themselves till they draw blood, and wounding +themselves with knives. They boast that they are +descendants of St. George. It is precisely in Tigre, the +country of the Abyssinian dancing mania, where they are found in +the greatest numbers, and where they have, in the neighbourhood +of Axum, a church of their own, dedicated to their patron saint, +<i>Oun Arvel</i>. 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.</p> +<p>The Abyssinian Zoomorphism is a no less important phenomenon, +and shows itself a manner quite peculiar. The blacksmiths +and potters form among the Abyssinians a society or caste called +in Tigre <i>Tebbib</i>, and in Amhara <i>Buda</i>, 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 themselves into hyænas and other beasts of prey, on +which account they are feared by everybody, and regarded with +horror. They artfully contrive to keep up this +superstition, because by this separation they preserve a monopoly +of their lucrative trades, and as in other respects they are good +Christians (but few Jews or Mahomedans live among them), they +seem to attach no great consequence to their +excommunication. As a badge of distinction they wear a +golden ear-ring, which is frequently found in the ears of +Hyænas that are killed, without its having ever been +discovered how they catch these animals, so as to decorate them +with this strange ornament, and this removes in the minds of the +people all doubt as to the supernatural powers of the smiths and +potters. To the Budas is also ascribed the gift of +enchantment, especially that of the influence of the evil +eye. They nevertheless live unmolested, and are not +condemned to the flames by fanatical priests, as the lycanthropes +were in the Middle Ages.</p> +<h3>CHAPTER IV—SYMPATHY</h3> +<p>Imitation—compassion—sympathy, these are imperfect +designations for a common bond of union among human +beings—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 diseased 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 allied 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 imitations, however, directed as +they are to foolish and pernicious objects, place the +self-independence of the greater portion of mankind 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, +especially 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, 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 make this apparent +by comparison, it may not be out of place, at the close of this +inquiry, to introduce a few striking examples:—</p> +<p>1. “At a cotton manufactory at Hodden Bridge, in +Lancashire, a girl, on the fifteenth of February, 1787, 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 following day 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 relieved 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 +apprehensions 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.”</p> +<p>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 subject 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.</p> +<p>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 Charité 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 contortions 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 exception, 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, disappeared, 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 +consisted principally in the administration of opium, at that +time the favourite remedy.”</p> +<p>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 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 infatuation, 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. 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 +innumerable proofs of this, but we need go no further than the +most recent times.</p> +<p>3. In a methodist chapel at Redruth, a man during divine +service 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, Penryn 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 +appeared, 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, earnestly exhorted them to confess +their sins, and zealously endeavoured 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 represented 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 meantime their convulsions continued, and they +remained during this condition so abstracted from every earthly +thought that they stayed two and sometimes three days and nights +together in the chapels, agitated all the time by spasmodic +movements, and taking neither repose nor nourishment. +According to a moderate computation, 4,000 people were, within a +very short time, affected with this convulsive malady.</p> +<p>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 themselves 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 affected, causing a sobbing respiration, which was +performed with great effort. Tremors and agitation ensued, +and the patients screamed 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 +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 +recovery. The disorder completely resembled the St. +Vitus’s dance, but the fits sometimes went on to an +extraordinarily violent extent, 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 until 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 religious ecstasy, 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 young women, +however, were its most frequent victims.</p> +<p>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 overcome 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 six years old, began to complain +forthwith of palpitation, followed 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 pubic 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 +encountered 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 voluntarily 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, whereby 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 water; and as his kirk was +fortunately contiguous to a freshwater 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 Scotland. 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 Fetlar, very properly 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 meantime a psalm. The congregation was thus +preserved from further interruption; 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.</p> +<p>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 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.</p> +<p>5. The appearance of the <i>Convulsionnaires</i> in +France, whose inhabitants, from the greater mobility of their +blood, have in general been the less liable to fanaticism, is in +this respect instructive and worthy of attention. In the +year 1727 there died in the capital of that country the Deacon +Pâris, a zealous opposer of the Ultramontanists, division +having arisen in the French Church on account of the bull +“Unigenitus.” People made frequent 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 pulse. This novel occurrence excited the +greatest sensation all over Paris, and an immense concourse of +people resorted daily to the above-named cemetery in order to see +so wonderful a spectacle, which the Ultramontanists immediately +interpreted as a work of Satan, while their opponents ascribed it +to a divine influence. The disorder soon increased, until +it produced, in nervous women, <i>clairvoyance</i> +(<i>Schlafwachen</i>), a phenomenon till then unknown; for one +female especially attracted attention, who, blindfold, and, as it +was believed, by means of the sense of smell, read every writing +that was placed before her, and distinguished 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 distance, 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 increased so much in +numbers had not Louis XV directed that the cemetery should be +closed. 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 +<i>Secourists</i>. 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 paviors use their mallets, and it is +stated that some <i>Convulsionnaires</i> have borne daily from +six to eight thousand blows thus inflicted without danger. +One Secourist administered to a young woman who was suffering +under 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 appear indecent, put on gowns make like sacks, closed +at the feet. If they received any bruises by falling down +they were healed with earth from the grave of the uncanonised +saint. They usually, however, showed great agility in this +respect, and it is scarcely necessary to remark that the female +sex especially was distinguished 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 touched their +shoulders.</p> +<p>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 significations. One +Convulsionnaire even made believe to shave her chin, and gave +religious instruction at the same time, in order to imitate +Pâris, 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.</p> +<p>The insanity of the Convulsionnaires lasted without +interruption until the year 1790, and during these fifty-nine +years called forth more lamentable phenomena that the enlightened +spirits of the eighteenth century would be willing to +allow. The grossest 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 Grand Secours was forbidden by act of +parliament; for thenceforth 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, and +after him Lorry, attributed 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 writings which were exchanged on the +subject served, by the importance 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 +without the convulsions and the extraordinarily rude aid of the +brethren 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.</p> +<p>6. Similar fanatical sects exhibit among all nations of +ancient and modern times the same phenomena. An +overstrained bigotry is in itself, and considered in a medical +point of view, a destructive irritation of the senses, which +draws men away from the efficiency of mental freedom, and +peculiarly favours the most injurious emotions. Sensual +ebullitions, with strong convulsions of the nerves, appear sooner +or later, and insanity, suicidal disgust of life, and incurable +nervous disorders, are but too frequently the consequences of a +perverse, and, indeed, hypocritical zeal, which has ever +prevailed, as well in the assemblies of the Mænades and +Corybantes of antiquity as under the semblance of religion among +the Christians and Mahomedans.</p> +<p>There are some denominations of English Methodists which +surpass, 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 +between religious ecstasy 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 1760, in the county of Cornwall, by two +fanatics, who were, even at that time, able to collect together a +considerable party. Their general doctrine is that of the +Methodists, and claims our consideration here only in so far as +it enjoins them during their devotional exercises to fall into +convulsions, 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 Maenades, practise these religious 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 the sight 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.</p> +<p>In the United States of North America communities of +Methodists have existed for the last sixty years. The +reports of credible witnesses of their assemblages for divine +service in the open air (camp meetings), to which many thousands +flock from great distances, 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 ecstasy and violent spasms into +which they are thrown, and others have publicly stripped +themselves and jumped into the rivers. They have swooned +away 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 as if they +wished to indicate, even by their outward form, the shocking +degradation of their human nature. At these camp-meetings +the children are witnesses of this mad infatuation, 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 arisen from +fright and excessive excitement, will not afterwards yield to any +medical treatment.</p> +<p>But enough of these extravagances, which even in our now days +embitter the lives of so many thousands, and exhibit to the world +in the nineteenth century the same terrific form of mental +disturbance as the St. Vitus’s dance once did to the +benighted nations of the Middle Ages.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK DEATH, AND THE DANCING +MANIA***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 1739-h.htm or 1739-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/1739 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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