SPONTANEOUS AND IMITATIVE CRIME. 659 



or the self -deceived victims of their own illusions. Under what cate- 

 gory, for instance, should we place the " biting nuns " who appeared in 

 rapid succession in the* convents of Germany, Holland, and Rome ? 

 This extended mania arose simply from the spontaneous act of one nun 

 attempting to bite a companion immediately the whole sisterhood 

 fell to biting each other. The news of this extraordinary occurrence 

 was told from place to place, and " biting nuns " became a terror and 

 a nuisance, over large portions of Europe in the fifteenth century ; this 

 mania proved irrepressible until exhaustion and reaction set in, termi- 

 nating its abnormal absurdities.* In France another foolish epidemic 

 of imitation seized upon many of the conventual houses. A nun one 

 day commenced to imitate the mewing of a cat, and incontinently the 

 other Sisters present fell to mewing. Finally the nuns took to mewing 

 in concert for hours at a time ; persuasions and commands for once failed 

 to produce obedience. The mewing nuisance continued unabated, un- 

 til the whole sisterhood were threatened with the entrance of the mili- 

 tary, who it was announced were " coming to whip them with iron 

 rods." The fear of these rough chastisers finally effected a cure. 



That such scenes should happen, through nervous sympathy, in se- 

 cluded assemblages of women, is not so very remarkable, at least is 

 not inexplicable on nervo-physiological grounds ; but we find even more 

 disastrous examples among men, even those habitually living in the 

 open air, within the ordinary conditions of life, and accustomed to mus- 

 cular labor, which is a great tamer of the nerves. One of the most ex- 

 traordinary scenes ever witnessed in wonder-producing Europe was 

 enacted in Aix-la-Chapelle and other cities, commencing in 1374, when 

 an assemblage of persons appeared in the famous Westphalian city, 

 who had " danced their way through Germany." At one period the col- 

 umn was estimated to consist of 30,000 persons. In Metz alone there were 

 1,100. These people, men, women, and children, animated by an imi- 

 tative delusion, apparently without any power of self-control, danced and 

 leaped for hours at a time in the public streets of cities and on the high- 

 ways of the countries through which they passed. Nothing could stop 

 them, and they only ceased when exhausted muscles could do no more, 

 when they fell to the ground, suffering more or less from this violent 

 and spasmodic action. The first bands which appeared were, it is chari- 

 table to suppose, composed of sporadic cases of victims of that terrible 

 nervous disease known in our day as St. Vitus's dance, and other nervous 

 afflictions such as epilepsy, whom accident or sympathy had brought 

 into companionship ; but as these, at first few in number, proceeded 

 from place to place, they were joined by others who, up to that time, 

 had betrayed no symptoms of ill health or. insanity, but who, attracted 

 by the unusual sight, first followed and leondered, ending by joining 

 the leaping, dancing crowd, to the amazement of their friends with ro- 

 buster nerves, who were able to resist the fascination. 



* See Zimmermann " On Solitude," vol. ii., for this and account of " mewing nuns." 



