Morning journal and courier., 1880-05-03
St. Vitus.
A Whole Convent at the Dance

I A letter from Cincinnati to the New York | Sun says "A singular calamity has bsfallen I the Ursuline convent, famous Catholic in | stitution in Brown county. The trouble is | the breaking out in epidemic form, among the pupils, of St. Fitus' dance. The malady | made it's appearance two or three weeks ago, but was not considered serious until within a
 few days, when, finding that it had become epidemic and in one case at least resulted fla | tally, the parents oi the pupils were requested | to remove their children.
 The symptoms attending the first cese were | those usually accompanying this disease first l an involuntary motion of the shoulders, then growing of the symptoms into the other | portions of the body, a contraction of mus cles of the arms and face, 8 slight nausea and I headache. The physician of the institution.
 Dr. Hall of Fayetteville, was called in, and
 the ordinary prescription for such cases ad-
 ministsrsd. The patient girl of perhaps 12, stated that she had never been subject to any | attacks of this nature, but that an older sister had been so troubled On the next day two
 more of the pupils were similarly attacked. On the following day there were more, and as the days and weeks went by, more and moro of the inmates of the convent became subject to this strange illness, until probably twenty or moro of the pupils and dozen or more of the sisters in attendance had been attacked with this strange and unaccoultable epidemic, for such it now appeared to bs. On Wednes- day morning the doctor was sent for in great haste and on arriving found ten new patients jerking and hopping and gaping and twisting their faces into inconceivable shapes and even while he was present two or three more were taken with strange symptoms, and fell to jerking and twisting in the same manner as those who had preceded them in this singular experience. Then the doctor and the sisters,
 who had bsen gradually growing alarmed, took thorough fright, and the school was
 called up, the portion able to answer to tho call and hurrisdly dismissed, the daily omni
 bus aud barouche and convenient spring wagon pressed into service, and as many of the pupils as could be got of on so short notice hurried to the depot and sent to their homes by the first train.
 As soon as ths disease came to be recog- nized, it was observed that those witnessing its operations upon others soon came to be af- fected by it, and the patients were kept sx- cluded from the society of the others. As the number grew it became necessary to place several of the afflicted in the same apartments during the presence of the physician, and here some very strange scenes have taken place. Dr. Hall, at first believing that the action of the mind would have a very con- siderable effect in the treatment of the dis ease, tried to induce tho patients to overcome by will forco tho strange motions of the body. To this act he persuaded those whose arms were affected to try to carry steadily across the room shallow tin pan containing half 8 dozen marbles without spilliAg the marbles upon the floor. These tests resulted in some cases satisfactorily, in others the marbles be- ing thrown almsst to the ceiling and scattered in showers about the room.
 With only 8 very few exceptions the cases have been confined to the convent, yet there have been enough outside to raise question Rs to whether it was peculiar to the communi- ty in this particular building. There were in 1 the convent seventy pupils and like number of sisters, who have charge of the department. In some of them 1t is much less violent than in others. In some it continues no more than an hour; with others it has duration of two or three weeks.
 One curious case is reported from Chilli cothe. One of the pupils at the convent, g young lady, had gone home possessed of this strange malady, and. having recovered, as she supposed, went to church. During the service she felt ths disease returning and chancins to look around saw that two little girls. standing just behind her in the church, had suddenly become similarly affected Only g dozen pupils remain in the convent.