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
wer