The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-01-26
sYmPATHY.s GREAT POWER.


EiSfOI1c Mental DeICstonS recalled by q
Recent Case.
The recent outbreak of a nervous
malady In a tenement in the Italian
quarter III a western city. by which a
large portion of the persons living in
the house seemed to become suddenly
afflicted with mild kind of st. Vitus'
dance, suggests the wonderful power
Of sympathy and imitation upon GER
tain teuperamepts. of which all med
ical men are well aware. History
abounds with such instances. although
it 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 .'tarau.-
ISM and the dance which was thought
TO be the cure for it has ever since been
ANU" II as tltE ldi
The intelligent and learned men Of
those days were wont 10 deride the no
ton of any but the ignorant super.
stitious being susceptible to the mania
until one of them. the bishop of Fo-
Ggno, found that what he had believed
to be mere delusion or fraud in others.
has proved to be grave reality. Hav-
ing allowed himself. by way of a joke,
TO be bitten by tarantula, he could
obtain no other cure than by being
compelled to dance, through the inhu.
ence of the music of the tarautella
1t was fully ascertained that the bite
of the tarantula was not al all poison
Gus, and the bishop was persuaded OF
this when he undertook the joke
Still, the idea having at length taken
possession of his mind that possibly il
might be poisonous after all. he be-
came 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
recollections of what had been pre-
scented to the eye, which had been ridi.
culed, and which was in itself inert in
its 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. SC
that even old men of ninety threw
aside their crutches at the sound of the
tarantella, and, as if some magic DO
ton restorative of youth and vigor
were flowing through their veins.
Joined the most extravagant dancers
FernandinO, an eminent medical au
thority of the time, recorded the case OF
a boy 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 it 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 exhilaratior
caused by music.
The powers of sympathy were also
strlklngly manifested in 1887 at Holder
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 fit
and continued to suffer from the most
violent commissions for twentv-four |
hours. On the following day three
girls were seized in the same manner
ana on the second day six more wer.
stacked.
The alarm became so great that the /
whole works, where from two hun !
ired to three hundred hands were en-.
sloyed, 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 fatigucd by
holding the girls.
The symptoms were SO violent that
It required from four the five person.
TO hold patients to prevent them from
tearing out their hair or from dashing
their heads against the walls or floor.
But when the public became assured
that the complaint was merely a merry
BUS disorder. not introduced by any
poison from tho cotton bale and easily
,ured, no other person was affected.
although previous TO that several per
IONS had been SO afflicted even when
several miles from the scene Of excite.
nent, merely from hearing reports OF
he symptoms manifested in others.
Dancing was found TO be the most ef.
icacious remedy.
The effects of sympathy and imi.a-
ion and excessive excitement mani.
ested at camp meetings in this coun-
ry show that with all our boasted ad.
ancernent ia civilization beyond those
Who Inhs bited Europe during the mid
lie ages, the human mind is still sus.
eptibie TO these strange mental delu.
ions and physical manifestations. ex.
tied entirely through the power OF
and imitation in those who
lace themselves in circumstances IA I
ora ole fer their develspnen.-N L.
Iegaid
Not for Love.
The wife vho trades upon her hus