Dancing Plague
You must be familiar with the three plagues caused by Yersinia pestis that are Bubonic plague, Septicemic plague, or Pneumonic plague. However, have you come across the term dancing plague? I know it sounds kinda off, I felt the same, though, it is a real-life phenomenon that struck many in medieval Europe. The times when the plague occurred very little was apprehended about the science causing the dancing plague. The societies of the time presented justifications, from demonic possession, the wrath of God to bites of spiders.
The story goes back to a small French town named Strasbourg. What happened was a woman, known by the name, Frau Troffea belonging to the town came out of her house and started to dance on the streets. According to the story, people were amazed by the act, some were clapping whilst some just stood there gazing at her. It looked like the woman is not in the charge of her own body, she had no idea how to stop it, neither did she started the dance by her will. The terror did not end on the day as the woman kept on dancing for 6 days from 14 July 1518. Her shoes were soaked in blood and she would pass each night out of exhaustion. She would wake up each day in the morning and begin to dance.
Frau was suffering from what later came across as the ‘dancing mania’ or ‘dancing plague’. Many documents were presented to clear the fact that the victims danced and it all was started with her. The testimony consisted of notes of physicians, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles. The Strasbourg city council provided their notes as well.
It is noted that the disease was not new to Europe as it had been there since the 7th century, though it occurred in phases with extensive gaps in between. It is assumed that mania reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries. Through 15th and 16th-century thousands of people were affected by the disease, and several lost their lives due to it.
In modern medical terms, the dancing plague of the 15th and 16th centuries is noted as a psychogenic disease. Meaning it was a kind of disease, which has a physical abnormality on the patient due to psychological issues. Although no incident of dancing plague been seen as of the 19th century, there are numerous additional psychogenic illnesses came into the notice in contemporary times. These include seizures or body aches that were the effect of sudden shocks or prolonged periods of emotional or mental distresses.
In the plague, around 400 people took to dancing for days without having any rest. They used to get tired and would collapse or some of them even have died of exhaustion, heart attack, or stroke.
Did this really happen?
Indeed, it happened through 15th-16th century.