The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1894-03-03
svmPATHY.s GREAT POWER.
Historic Mental Deluslons Recalled by q
Recent Case.


The recent outbreak of a nervous
malady in a tenement in the Italia n
quarter in a western city. by which q
large portion of the persons living in
the house seemed to become suddenly
a fflicted with a mild kind of st. Vitus'
dance, suggests tho wonderful power
Of sympathy and imitation upon GER
tain temperamentso of which all med
icAl men are we'll aware History
a bounds with such instances, although
il is now many years since any such
obtained any very wide preva-
lence.
Italy was the scene of ono of the
most famous of these, where for some
there was an epidemic OF
dancing. which was supposed to be the
only remedy for ma MIA of disease I'M
duced by the alleged poisonous sting
Of the tarantula, or spider. So wide
spread was this that it passed into his
ism,'' and the dance which was thought
to be the cure for it has ever since been
known the '.taranteha.
The intelligent and learned mon at
those days were wont to deride the no
ton of any but the ignorant snper-
stitious being susceptible to the mania.
until one of them. the bishop of Fo-
Iigno, found that what he had believed
to be mere delusion or fraud in others,
has proved to he a grave reality. Hav-
ing allowed himself. by way of joke,
to be bitten by II tarantula, he could
obtain no other cure than by being
compelled to dance, through the influ-
cnce of the music of the tarantella.-
It was fully ascertained that the bite
of the tarantuls: was not at 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 it
might be poisonous after all. he be"
came a victim of this imaginary poi
son. From the state of pu bile opinion
in that age it has been recorded that
/ even the most decided sceptics, inca pa
BILE of guarding themselves against the
recol1ections of what had been pre-
sented 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, so
that even old men of ninety threw
aside their crutchcs a the sound of the
tarantella, and, as if some magic Po'
ton restorative of youth and vigor
were. flowing through their veins,
joined the most cStrssvagant 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 man id in consequence
| of the bite of the tarantu1a, and vhat
| 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 it's effects was the very sight of those
| affected, even without the exhilaratior
| caused by music
| The powers of sympat thy were alst
| strilxingly manifested in 1851 at Holder
| bridge, in Lancashire, where girl pu
| a mouse into the bosom of another girl
| who had a great dread OF mice. Th'
| girl was instantly thrown into Il fit
| and continued to suffer from the mos
violent commissions for twenty fou
| hours. On the following day three
| girls were seized in the same manner
| and on the second day six more wer
! attacked.
The alarm became so great that tn
whole works, where from two hun
dred to three hundred hands were en-,
ployed, were totally stopped. and tn
been introduced among them from
opening bag of cotton. Fourtee1
more were seized on the two following
days, making in all twenty fou
actual victims of this excitement G
terror in sport. OF this number twer
! ty-onc were young women, two girl
less than ten years of age, and on
man. who had been much fatigued
holding the girls.
The symptoms We're SO violent tina
it required from four the five person
to hold patients to prevent them fro,
tearing out their hair or from da shin
their heads against the walls or foo
. But when the public became assure
that the complaint was merely Il ner'
GUS disorder. not introduced by an
| poison from the cotton bale and easi1
cured, no other person was affected
although previous to that several pc
sons had been so afflicted even whe
several miles from the scene of eXcit
, ment, merely from hearing reports
, the symptoms manifested in other
Dancing was found to be the most G
| ficacious remedy.
, The effects of sympathy and limit
+ ! ton and excessive excitement man
, | tested at camp meetings in this cou
| try show that with all our boastcd a
vancement in civilization beyond tho
> who inhabited Europe during the mi
die ages, the human mind is still su
Z ceptib1c to these strange mental del
| sions and physical manifestations, e
. | cited entirely through the power
' sympathy and imitation in those wi
place themselves in circumstances t
I vorable for their devclopment.-N.'
: | Herald.
l The other day l was told of a lit
+ girl who attended a distribution
. prizes given by the society for the pr
e. vention OF cruelty to animals. She h;
: won, YOU must know. book as
1