After almost three years since the world’s reality turned around from a pandemic, it’s only been natural for curious minds to take a look at the past and see other epidemics that have afflicted humanity over time. Many of us experienced the influenza pandemic of 2009, we’ve learned about the terrible Spanish Flu that occurred only a century ago, and of course, most people have heard about the terrible plague that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages.
Now, Medieval times were an interesting period in time (at least in Europe) when religion took over most of humanity’s mindset and science took some steps back. Well, turns out the Black Death wasn’t the only epidemic that struck the Old Continent since tons of contemporary records talk of a strange plague that hit first the small city of Strasbourg (current France). As you got from the title, this was a dancing plague, and as the name indicates, something strange forced its hundreds of victims to dance uncontrollably for days and weeks having, according to some records, deathly consequences.
Patient Zero
It all started in the summer of 1518 when a woman who has been named Fray Troffea (it’s still unknown if that was her real name) started dancing uncontrollably in one of the main squares of the city. At first, bypassers thought it was simply a street performance, but as the hours passed by, they realized the woman had no control of her body and was starting to get scared about what was happening to her. This urge to dance and twist her body, lasted for almost a week until Frau Troffea’s body couldn’t handle it anymore and she simply fell by exhaustion.
Besides the dancing and the panic, Frau Troffea also presented symptoms like pain, hunger, and extreme anxiety. Unfortunately, by the time her body gave up, dozens had joined her in this strange disorder. According to contemporary reports, the dancing pandemic afflicted over 400 victims.
Treating the epidemic
As mentioned, this dancing plague was highly documented at the time with all sorts of “specialists” jumping up to give conclusions on what had really happened to the people of Strasbourg. Naturally, one of the first conclusions involved some sort of religious explanations that went from demonic possessions to divine punishment towards the population.
Contemporary physicians, however, had other ideas. They believed that that particular summer of 1518 had been extremely hot causing what they called “hot blood.” For them, the only treatment was leaving the patients to dance their problems away so that the fever would give up. A chronicle of the time read: “women and men who dance and hop…/ In the public market, in alleys and streets,/ Day and night until the ‘sickness’ finally stops.”
So, with the medical expertise of physicians suggesting patients should be left dancing the city took a very controversial measurement. Hospitals? Nah, set a stage! Yes, they built a massive stage for the patients to dance away the disease, and to make it less awkward they even hired dancers and musicians to join the victims. What they didn’t foresee is that in a matter of weeks the dancing plague would start to take its toll. Although historians nowadays debate on this matter, many records of the time talk about how with time, patients like Frau Troffea, would eventually collapse from exhaustion and even die right on the stage.
According to these contemporary documents, as soon as things got serious, authorities decided to try something else. Enters the Church. A chronicle of the time describes how some patients were transported in carts to a shrine outside the city. They were given some “small crosses and red shoes” and hoped some praying would absolve them from their sins.
The dancing epidemic spreads
Now, Strasbourg wasn’t the only city that suffered the strange horrors of the Dancing plague. Records of similar situations appear in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland around the same century. When cities in these countries, that belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, started registering similar cases, the Church became convinced that this was the Devil’s doing. So, towns all over Europe decided to work on the matter before having to pay the consequences. This meant big processions, masses, and priests working directly with their flock to prevent or treat the Dancing Plague.
What’s the most likely explanation?
So, what’s the real explanation for this epidemic? Many historians and scientists have tried to find a logical explanation for this strange plague since then. Some years after the events, the renowned physician Paracelsus gave it a shot. He wrote a lengthy treaty on what he called choreomania, claiming that the phenomenon had a logical explanation that had nothing to do with the divine. He explained that human beings have “laughing veins” that when triggered, could provoke a “ticklish feeling” in the limbs and the spine making patients dance in a frenzy and clouding their judgment.
Although Paracelsus’ explanation isn’t valid today, he had a point in blaming the body and not an external agent. Of course, another explanation that has been given throughout history is that the population of Strasbourg and other towns in Europe had ingested ergot, a type of mold that appears in rye stalks that can produce hallucinations and convulsions. However, this theory has been dismissed since it would’ve caused even more health conditions other than making people dance uncontrollably.
So, what’s the explanation? Actually, there isn’t one but there’s a theory that makes a lot of sense. Historian John Waller, who has studied thoroughly the Dancing Plague of 1518, explains that the political, social, and economic environment that the population of Strasbourg and other cities on the continent is to blame. The year started with massive rains that flooded the fields followed by extreme cold and then extreme heat. This situation caused a terrible famine that affected the population not only physically but also mentally.
According to Waller, the situation caused a mass psychogenic illness triggered by a contemporary superstition about a curse. Seeing that the weather had ravaged their fields, people got convinced that their sins had provoked the curse, and eventually the stress this belief caused in the population ended up inducing a mass hysteria that afflicted an important bit of the city’s population.