176 On the Relations hetiveen Mind and Muscle. 



of the principle, that persons, altogether uninfluenced by any ulterior ob- 

 ject, may perpetrate actions most revolting to the moral nature of man in 

 its healthy condition ; and that the only discoverable reason is, that such 

 persons have witnessed or heard of the commission of similar atrocities by 

 others ! So convinced are we of the injurious influence which the narra- 

 tion of crimes exerts upon individuals of a susceptible temperament, that 

 we should rejoice to see some kind of restraint laid upon that exti-eme 

 licence with which the details of crimes are constantly obtruded on the 

 public eye. 



It is impossible to find more striking instances of the influence of imita- 

 tion or sympathy than in the records of certain epidemic nervous disorders. 

 Dr. Hecker of Berlin, the author of the History of the Black Plague, has 

 written a most curious narrative of the epidemic dance of the middle ages, 

 a French translation of which we have perused in the last number of the 

 " Annales d'Hygifeue."* Dr. Hecker relates that soon after the cessation 

 of the black plague, in the fourteenth century, bands of men and women, 

 afflicted with the derangement in question, used to wander from village to 

 village, and even through towns, presenting to the inhabitants a most 

 strange and distressing spectacle. They were wont to form in circles, and 

 then to dance with the greatest violence and transport, whirling themselves 

 round and round, utterly unconscious of every thing about them, till they 

 fell exhausted to the ground. They sufi'ered spasms and convulsions of the 

 most torturing description till the paroxysm abated. During the dance, 

 they often beheld apparitions ; some were blessed with visions of angels, 

 and with glimpses of heaven, while others could perceive only daemons and 

 flashes from the infernal regions. AVherever these unhappy individuals 

 arrived, numbers of the inhabitants became similarly afiected. To prove 

 that this communication of the malady was the effect of imitation or sym- 

 pathy, Dr. Hecker states that the sight of certain wretches, who, for the 

 sake of gain, affected these antics, produced the same results as in the true 

 cases. These dances were honoured with the names of St. John and of St. 

 Guy ; of the former, because they commenced at certain religious cere- 

 monies sacred to that apostle, (which, however, resembled Bacchanalian 

 orgies, rather than Christian rites) ; of the latter, because many sufferers 

 had been cured in the chapels of St. Guy, whom they were therefore bound 

 in gratitude to consider their patron saint. The epidemic vvas not ex- 

 tinguished for nearly two centuries. One not unlike it prevailed in Italy, 

 under the name of Tarantulism. The persons affected fancied themselves 

 bitten by a particular kind of lizard, and became melancholy and stupid, 

 till aroused by the music of the flute or guitar j they would then become 

 animated, and commence dancing in a most extravagant manner, never 

 giving over till overpowered by extreme fatigue. Sooietimes the patients 



* Since the above was wTitten, an English translation of this history, by Dr. 

 Babington, has been announced. 



