, 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