The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-02-02
Tarantismus.

III Apulld, anu III Inc blinc Oh InlS du-
thor seems to have fairly well estab-
lished itself as disease in that PROV
ince. 1t is spoken of as having been
produced by the bite of the wolf-spider,
an earth species of light-brown color,
with black stripes, known to science as
the 'LycOsa tara1et,tla ApuIicd. This
creature is found generally distributed
throughout Italy and Spain, and many
an old traveller has told wonderful sto-
ries of the effect of its bite, which was
accredited as poisonous. The part Bit
ten, according to the common belief,
became swollen, and smarted, the VIC
tim became low-spirited trembled and
was anxious; he was troubled with
nausea, giddiness, and at length fell
down in a swoon All exterior cir
cumstances powerfully affected him; he
was easily excited to frenzy or de-
pressed to melancholy, and behaved
generally as an historical subject would
do. The strangest effect, or rather
supposed effect, of the bite was the be-
havior of the patient at the sound of
music; for he Immediately rose and
danced as madly as do the wicked peo-
pie in the fairy tale at the sound of
the hero's enchanted pipe. However
the patient may have been affected at
the outset, he seems invariably to have
falleu into swoon-the result of nerv-
GUS eXhaustion--from which music
and music only could relieve him; but
neither music nor any other remedy
could permanently cure him,
Poisonous spiders were supposed by
the ancients to have been common
enough; but they do not seem to have
recorded the supposed effects of their
bite. In fact, they appear to have re-
served them as Del ec n1dchlnG to bring
about the denouement of much in
volved popular tale. The absence,
however, of particular descriptions of
the disease called taraEtismus will not
furnish us with proofs either one way
or the other as to its existence or nom
existence; for, in early times, all those
who suffered from strange or little I'M
derstood mental or nervous diseases
we're roughly classed together as I'M
fortunates suffering from the touch of
Satan. Hence, in the fifteenth century,
we suddenly come upon full descrip-
| ton of the tarantismus as a common
| and widely spread disease. In the next
century Fracastro. a celebrated physi-
| clan, relates that his steward having
| been bitten in the neck by the tarantula
or some other creature, fell down in q
death-like stupor; but when he gave
him the remedies then in vogue for
plague and hydrophobia he recovered
Meanwhile, tarantismus passed the
| hound rios of Apulio. npJ ,bDr+I,r ,,ft
| erwards there was scarcely a corner of
| Italy where it was not too well known
As it spread, it obtained more believers;
and the more credence it obtained the
more victims it attacked. This alone
would tend to prove that the disease
depended greatly for its existence on
the power of the imagination. Every
where, as we suppose, it was the hys-
terical temperaments which suffered,
for dull heavy louis are rarely subject
to affections of the nerves.
Of course, ordinary medical treat
ment failed to touch the disease; and
this of itself would tend to exaggerate
its power and frequency. Nothing
brought relief but lively dance-music,
and of this the old tunes La Pastorale
and La Tarantola were the most effica-
cious; the former for phlegmatic, the
latter for eXcitable temperaments
When these tunes were played with
correctness and taste the effect was
magical. The tarantanti danced ener-
getically until they fell down exhausted.
Old and young, male and female,
healthy and iniirm, began dancing like
machines worked by steam. Old writers
would have us believe that even old
cripples threw away their crutcheS and
danced with the best. Hysterical
females were the principal victims.
Other ailments were forgotten, pro-
priety of time and place ignored, and
soul and body, they delivered them
selves up to this dancing frenzy. They
shrieked, they wept, they laughed, they
sang, all the time dancing like bac-
chantes or furies, till at last they fell
down bathed in perspiration and utterly
helpless. If the music continued, they
at length arose and danced again, until
once more they fell PROSTATE. These fits
seem to have continued two or three
days, sometimes four, or even six, for
| the relief seems to have been in direct
ratio to the amount lost by perspra-
ton When the tarantant had by this
means recovered, he or she remained
free from the disease until the approach
of the warm weather of the next year,
and then was again relieved in the
same manner. Once tarantant, how
ever, always tarantant; one woman is
mentioned as being subject to these at
tacks for thirty summers. - Chambers
Journal.