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diff --git a/1739.txt b/1739.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9131487 --- /dev/null +++ b/1739.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4546 @@ +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*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition by Jane Duff, proofed +by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org. + + + + + +The Black Death +and +The Dancing Mania. + + +FROM THE GERMAN OF +J. F. C. HECKER. + +TRANSLATED BY +B. G. BABINGTON. + +CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: +_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. +1888. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Encyclopaedias 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. + +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. + +H.M. + + + + +THE BLACK DEATH + + +CHAPTER I--GENERAL OBSERVATIONS + + +That Omnipotence which has called the world with all its living creatures +into one animated being, especially reveals Himself in the desolation of +great pestilences. The powers of creation come into violent collision; +the sultry dryness of the atmosphere; the subterraneous thunders; the +mist of overflowing waters, are the harbingers of destruction. Nature is +not satisfied with the ordinary alternations of life and death, and the +destroying angel waves over man and beast his flaming sword. + +These revolutions are performed in vast cycles, which the spirit of man, +limited, as it is, to a narrow circle of perception, is unable to +explore. They are, however, greater terrestrial events than any of those +which proceed from the discord, the distress, or the passions of nations. +By annihilations they awaken new life; and when the tumult above and +below the earth is past, nature is renovated, and the mind awakens from +torpor and depression to the consciousness of an intellectual existence. + +Were it in any degree within the power of human research to draw up, in a +vivid and connected form, an historical sketch of such mighty events, +after the manner of the historians of wars and battles, and the +migrations of nations, we might then arrive at clear views with respect +to the mental development of the 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II--THE DISEASE + + +The most memorable example of what has been advanced is afforded by a +great pestilence of the fourteenth century, which desolated Asia, Europe, +and Africa, and of which the people yet preserve the remembrance in +gloomy traditions. It was an 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, _la mortalega grande_, the Great Mortality. + +Few testimonies are presented to us respecting its symptoms and its +course, yet these are sufficient to throw light upon the form of the +malady, and they are worthy of credence, from their coincidence with the +signs of the same disease in modern times. + +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. + +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. + +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 (_anthrax-artigen_) affection of the +lungs, effected the destruction of life before the other symptoms were +developed. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 axillae 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. + +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 +axillae 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. + +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 axillae 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 axillae, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III--CAUSES--SPREAD + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER IV--MORTALITY + + +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. + +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 Caesarea 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? + +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. + +In Florence there died of the Black Plague--60,000 +In Venice--100,000 +In Marseilles, in one month--16,000 +In Siena--70,000 +In Paris--50,000 +In St. Denys--14,000 +In Avignon--60,000 +In Strasburg--16,000 +In Lubeck--9,000 +In Basle--14,000 +In Erfurt, at least--16,000 +In Weimar--5,000 +In Limburg--2,500 +In London, at least--100,000 +In Norwich--51,100 + +To which may be added-- + +Franciscan Friars in German--124,434 +Minorites in Italy--30,000 + +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. Lubeck, +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Hotel 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. + +The churchyards were soon unable to contain the dead, and many houses, +left without inhabitants, fell to ruins. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It may therefore be assumed, without exaggeration, that Europe lost +during the Black Death 25,000,000 of inhabitants. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER V--MORAL EFFECTS + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Devoti_. "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." + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VI--PHYSICIANS + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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:-- + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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 _eclat_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_pestilence_ from _epidemy_ and _endemy_. 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 aeris 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." + +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 _pestilence_ (?), which imparts to it a character +(_qualitas occulta_) 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. + +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 _ad deliquium_ (_venae sectio eradicativa_). +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. + +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, "_that all epidemic diseases might become +contagious_, _and all fevers epidemic_," which attentive observers of all +subsequent ages have confirmed. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +THE DANCING MANIA + + +CHAPTER I--THE DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS + + +SECT. 1--ST. JOHN'S DANCE + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +SECT. 2--ST. VITUS'S DANCE + + +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. + + +SECT. 3--CAUSES + + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +SECT. 4--MORE ANCIENT DANCING PLAGUES + + +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. + +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. + + +SECT. 5--PHYSICIANS + + +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." + +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. + +Paracelsus divides the St. Vitus's dance into three kinds. First, that +which arises from imagination (_Vitista_, _Chorea imaginativa_, +_aestimativa_), by which the original Dancing Plague is to be understood. +Secondly, that which arises from sensual desires, depending on the will +(_Chorea lasciva_). 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. + +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. + + +SECT. 6--DECLINE AND TERMINATION OF THE DANCING PLAGUE + + +About this time the St. Vitus's dance began to decline, so that milder +forms of it appeared more frequently, while the severer cases became more +rare; and even in these, some of the important 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. + +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. + +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. + +After this commotion they remained well for the whole year; and such was +their faith in the protecting power of the saint, that one of them had +visited this shrine at Drefelhausen more than twenty times, and another +had already kept the saint's day for the thirty-second time at this +sacred station. + +The dancing fit itself was excited here, as it probably was in other +places, by music, from the effects of which the patients were thrown into +a state of convulsion. 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. + + + +CHAPTER II--THE DANCING MANIA IN ITALY + + +SECT. 1--TARANTISM + + +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. + + +SECT. 2--MOST ANCIENT TRACES--CAUSES + + +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 [Greek +text], 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Nowhere, however, do we find any mention made that those affected felt an +irresistible propensity to dancing, or that they were accidentally cured +by it. Even Constantine of Africa, who lived 500 years after Aetius, +and, as the most learned physician of the school of Salerno, would +certainly not have passed over so acceptable a subject of remark, knows +nothing of such a 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. + +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 _the Dance_ 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. + + +SECT. 3--INCREASE + + +At the close of the fifteenth century we find that tarantism had spread +beyond the boundaries of Apulia, and that the fear of being bitten by +venomous spiders had increased. Nothing short of death itself was +expected from the wound which these insects 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +SECT. 4--IDIOSYNCRASIES--MUSIC + + +Unaccountable emotions, strange desires, and morbid sensual irritations +of all kinds, were as prevalent as in the St. Vitus's dance and similar +great nervous maladies. So late as the sixteenth century patients were +seen armed with glittering swords which, during the attack, they +brandished with wild gestures, as if they were going to engage in a +fencing match. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +SECT. 5--HYSTERIA + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +SECT. 6--DECREASE + + +The Dancing Mania, arising from the tarantula bite, continued with all +those additions of self-deception and of the dissimulation which is such +a constant attendant on nervous disorders of this kind, through the whole +course of the seventeenth century. It was indeed, gradually on the +decline, but up to the termination of this period showed such +extraordinary symptoms that Baglivi, one of the best physicians of that +time, thought he did a service to science by making them the subject of a +dissertation. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III--THE DANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINIA + + +SECT. 1--TIGRETIER + + +Both the St. Vitus's dance and tarantism belonged to the ages in which +they appeared. They could not have existed 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 _bruly_, 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. _The +Abyssinians have their Christian flagellants, and there exists among them +a belief in a Zoomorphism, which presents a lively image of the +lycanthropy of the Middle Ages_. Their flagellants are called Zackarys. +They are united into a separate Christian fraternity, and make their +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, _Oun Arvel_. Here there is an ever-burning lamp, and they +contrive to impress a belief that this is kept alight by supernatural +means. They also here keep a holy water, which is said to be a cure for +those who are affected by the dancing mania. + +The Abyssinian Zoomorphism is a no less important phenomenon, and shows +itself a manner quite peculiar. The blacksmiths and potters form among +the Abyssinians a society or caste called in Tigre _Tebbib_, and in +Amhara _Buda_, which is held in some degree of contempt, and excluded +from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, because it is believed that they +can change themselves into hyaenas 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 Hyaenas 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. + + + +CHAPTER IV--SYMPATHY + + +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:-- + +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." + +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. + +2. "A young woman of the lowest order, twenty-one years of age, and of a +strong frame, came on the 13th of January, 1801, to visit a patient in +the Charite Hospital at Berlin, where she had herself been previously +under treatment for an inflammation of the chest with tetanic spasms, and +immediately on entering the ward, fell down in strong convulsions. At +the sight of her violent 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +5. The appearance of the _Convulsionnaires_ in France, whose +inhabitants, from the greater mobility of their blood, have in general +been the less liable to fanaticism, is in this respect instructive and +worthy of attention. In the year 1727 there died in the capital of that +country the Deacon Paris, a zealous opposer of the Ultramontanists, +division having arisen in the French Church on account of the bull +"Unigenitus." People made 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, +_clairvoyance_ (_Schlafwachen_), 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 _Secourists_. The +modes of relief adopted were remarkably in accordance with those which +were administered to the St. John's dancers and the Tarantati, and they +were in general very rough; for the sufferers were beaten and goaded in +various parts of the body with stones, hammers, swords, clubs, &c., of +which treatment the defenders of this extraordinary sect relate the most +astonishing examples in proof that severe pain is imperatively demanded +by nature in this disorder as an effectual counter-irritant. The +Secourists used wooden clubs in the same manner as paviors use their +mallets, and it is stated that some _Convulsionnaires_ 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. + +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 Paris, the worker of miracles, who, during this operation, and +whilst at table, was in the habit of preaching. Some had a board placed +across their bodies, upon which a whole row of men stood; and as, in this +unnatural state of mind, a kind of pleasure is derived from excruciating +pain, some too were seen who caused their bosoms to be pinched with +tongs, while others, with gowns closed at the feet, stood upon their +heads, and remained in that position longer than would have been possible +had they been in health. Pinault, the advocate, who belonged to this +sect, barked like a dog some hours every day, and even this found +imitation among the believers. + +The insanity of the Convulsionnaires lasted without 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. + +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 Maenades and Corybantes of antiquity as under the semblance of +religion among the Christians and Mahomedans. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK DEATH, AND THE DANCING +MANIA*** + + +******* This file should be named 1739.txt or 1739.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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