ich 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' 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 characterized 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' 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 while "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 b