St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1894-03-17
sYMPATHY's GREAT POWER.
Historic Mental Delusions Recalled by 0
Recent Case.

81 v"PA III y 0u6AS VO"eOs
Historic Mental Delusions Recalled by q
Recent Case.
The recent outbreak of \ nervous
malady in tenement in the Italian
quarter in a western city. by which a
large portion of the persons living in
the house seemed To become suddenly
afflicted with a mild kind of st. Vitus'
dance, suggests the wonderful power
Of sympathy and imitation upon Ger.
tain temperaments. of which all med
ical men are well aware. History
abouRds with such instances, although
il is now many years since any such
outbreak obtained any very wide preva.
lence.
Italy was the scene Of one of the
most famous of these. where for some
centuries there was an epidemic OF
dancing, which was supposed to be the
only remedy for a mania of disease in
duced by the alleged poisonous sting
of the tarantula, or spider. So wide
spread was this that it passed into his
tory under the specific name "tarant-
ISM" and the dance which was thought
To be the cure for it has ever since been
known as the '.tarantelia."
The intelligent and learned men Of
those days were wont to deride the no
tion of any but the ignorant super
stitious being susceptible to the mania
until one of them. the bishop of Fo-
ligno. found that what he had believed
20 I've mere delusion or frand in others.
has proved to he a grave reality. Hav-
ing allowed himself. by way of n joke.
to be bitten by a tarantula, he could
obtain no other cure than by being
compelled to dance. through the intiu-
ence of the music of the tarantclla.
II was fully ascertained that the bite
OF the tarantula was not a: all poison
ons. and the bishop was persuaded of
this when ne undertook the joke.
Still. the idea having at length taken
possession of his mind that possibly it
might be poisonous after all. he be.
came a victim of this imaginary poi
son. From the state Of public opinion
in that age it has been recorded that
even the most decided sceptics. incapa-
BILE of guarding themselves against the
recollcctions of what had been pre-
sented to the eye. which had been ridi-
culed. and which was in itself inert in
It's effects.
Against the imaginary effect pro-
duced by the tarantula's bite or by the
bite Of the sufferers, neither youth nor
old age afforded any protection. SO
that even old men of ninety threw
aside their crutches at the sound of the
tarantclla. and. as if some magic po-
tion restorative of youth and vigor
were flowing through their veins.
joined the most cHtravagant dancers
Fernandino. an eminent medical au-
thority of the time, recorded the case of
a hoy five years old who was seized
with the dancing mania in consequence
of the bite of the tarantula. and what
is almost past belief were il not sup
ported by the testimony of SO credible
an eye witness. even deaf people were
not exempt from the disorder, so potent
in its effects was the very sight of those
affected. even without the exhilaration
caused by music.
The powers of sympathy were also
strikingly manifested in l1s7 at Holden
bridge, in Lancashire. where a girl put
a mouse into the bosom of another girl.
who had a great dread of mice. The
girl was instantly thrown into a At.
and continued to suffer from the most
violent commissions for twenty-four
hours. On the following day three
girls were seized in the same manner.
and on the second day six more were
attacked.
The alarm became SO great that the
whole works, where from two hum
dred to three hundred hands were en-
ployed. were totally stopped, and the
idea prevailed that the plague had
been introduced among them from
opening a bag of cotton. Fourteen
more were seized on the two following
days, making in all twenty-four
actual victims of this excitement OF
terror in sport. OF this number TWEEN
ty-one were young women. two girls
less than ten years of age. and one
man. who had been much fatigued by
holding the girls.
The symptoms were SO violent that
il required from four the five persons
to hold patients to prevent them from
tearing out their hair or from dashin2
their heads against the walls or floor.
But when the public became assured
that the complaint was merely a nerv-
GUS disorder, not introduced by any
poison from the cotton bale and easily
cured. no other person was affected,
although previous to that several per.
sons had been SO afflicted even when
several miles from the scene of excite.
ment, merely from hearing reports OF
the symptoms manifested in others.
Dancing was found to be the most cf.
ficacious remedy.
The effects of sympathy and i,uita-
tion and excessive excitement mani
tested at camp meetings in this coun.
try show that with all our boasted ad.
vancement in civilization beyond those
who inha bited Europe during the mid
die ages. the human mind is still sus.
ceptiblc to these strange mental delu.
sions and physical manifestations, cx.
cited entirely through the power OF
sympathy and imitation in those who
place themselves in circumstances ia
vOrable for their dcvelopment.-N.Y Y.
Herald.
The other day ! was told of little
girl who attended a distribution OF
prizes given by the society for the pre-.
vention IF cruelty to animals. She had