New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-05
NERVOUS MIlNICRY.

A curious incident is reported from Wilkesbarrp,
Penn. One Of the young women employed in n silk
mill at that place was seized with an epleptc
ft The other girls crowded round her, alarmed
and excited Suddenly says the account, one
of them gave wild shrek and fell over in vio-
lent Mysteries. The excitement increased, and
in a minute or so another young woman seized
with hysteria. The girls were now almost wild with
nervous excitement and one after another were
seized with hysterc commissions" Eighteen Of
them were affected in this strange way, and they
all had to be sent home after medical aid had
been summoned. The case belongs to by no
means uncommon but very interesting class of
nervous affections Neuro-mimesis, or nervous
mimicry, has been at the base Of great number
Of pulling outbreaks. many Of which were at
the time of their occurrence ascrbed to supernatu
raj causes In the fifteenth century nun in
German convent suddenly began to new like
cat. In short time the infection had spread
until all the other nuns were mewing in rivalry
with her. The mewing epidemic was carried to
other converts, and for time the religious
authorities were in CONSERVATION
In the same century a strange biting mania
developed in convent. and soon all the nuns
were biting one another and all who approached
them This outbreak was cured by terrorism.
A regiment of soldiers was drawn up in the
court Of the convent and the biting nuns were
informed that If they did not come to their
senses they would be fogged with rods by the
troops The fear of this punishment had the
desired effect With other epidemcs Of the same
general character however. all remedies failed.
OF these was the so-caled dancing mania, when
tens Of thousands of people went leaping, dancing
and singing through the streets. in procession.
abandoning business, domestic duties, everything.
to indulge in this singular eccentricity The
history of the Fagellants. who walked in pro-
cession each rank flogging the one in front and
being hogged by the one behind. is Of the same
order. This epidemic spread until it had covered
all Germany and Italy and invaded France.
Both the dancing and the Flogellant manias
affected children as well as grown people. Num-
bers OF the victims persisted miserably for pro-
cessions arranged to traverse the country.
and this they did, wandering about without any
commissariat trusting to charity until the nuisance
grew SO formidable that cities closed their gates
against the pilgrims and drove them into the
waste. where thousands died Of exposure and
prvation.
Hecker, the historian OF the epdcmics of the
middle ages had curious theory to account for
them. They occurred in the period of the Black
Death, when pestilence stalked over Europe and
swept away millions Tecler held that the plague
WIS CuuScu ny Certain cHdHBcS III Tue cdrlH
magnetism. and to support this he cited many
reports OF strange atmospheric phenomena, foul
odors arising from the ocean and satirating whole
continents, and other indications Of abnormality
in the tolluric conditions. Heclxers bypothe
sis has not been accepted by modern science, but
his facts are trustworthy The extensive cpl
denies of nervous mimicry which he chronicles
have certainly not been paralleled since the mid
die ages, and perhaps should look for the
explanation Of this 10 the magnitude of the adj
vance in the standards Of living and in the aver
age OF health The most striking recent instance Of
nervous mimicry is the case Of the Convulsion-
naires of ST. Medard, many of whom were unques-
tona5lY cataleptics. With the spread Of eduoa-
ton and better regimen of diet the tendency to
nervous epidemics has plainly diminished. 1t
is however, by no means outgrown, as the Wilkes
barre episode cited at the beginning OF this article
shows, and proved by the occurrence of a
similar outbreak among the girls in a Brooklyn
factory nob long ago. To-day these strange
affections recognized as neurotic, but the pre-
else mode OF their dissemination is still an UNI
solved problem