The Mystery Case of Strasbourg 1518

about 1 month ago

Dancing, actually one of my hobbies but not my favorite but how do you explain a situation where someone die as a result of dancing because this was the case in 1518 where a single woman started to dance in the town of Strasbourg in France. She danced and the local authorities noticed that there was no music playing to her hearing so what could be making her dance. In a few days, more people joined in the dancing and the shocking part is they didn't stop until they fell dead one after the other. So why will people die from dying?

Actually, the event of that day was written by Paracelsus who was a physician, and according to his report, it started with just one woman and then it became a disco party with no sounds. People at the time were not pleased with this behavior at first and they showed their displease. An example of such people was Sebastian Brant who warned the citizens in his book titled Ship of Fools and you would expect that he discussed the morality around dancing like follies on the street. Bringing religion and science seems to be two parallel lines that can never meet although religion did a lot in the history of science but these two often give different results for same case.

While some people basically the elite and religious were concerned about morality, other people went to seek the finest physician at the time to help diagnose the dancing people and his diagnosis is very funny today but it wasn't as at then. The dancers were said to be suffering for overheating of blood in the brain even as funny as it might have sounded, if it were my Ibadan people, they will say the people dancing are mad even in this 21st century. Remember that at the time, the Miasma theory as well as Humoral Theory were the deal in medicine where all diseases were believed to be caused by Miasma and balancing the body fluid.

When the people had this, they decided to help the people stop the dancing plague and to do so, they decided to prescribe more music for the people could dance more and cool off their brains. Soon, the community soon began to think that it wasn't heated blood in the brain but since religion was a big deal, people thought it must've been the devil at work. The people dancing began to suffer from blood feet as a result of unending dancing and they were made to dance round the statue of the saint while community prayed for them and interestingly enough, after a long time of prayers the plague ended. Within the space of 3 months, about 400 people had died from dancing but after the plague ended, people went back to their homes and most just sat down in their houses doing nothing.

There have been 2 main explanations from John Waller to the dancing plague with one being that that the people suffered Ergot (Claviceps purpurea) toxicity since the fungus isn't only poisonous but also produces a hallucinogenic effect when consumed. An instance of the fungus in effect is the synthetic form of it known as lysergic acid diethylamide (lucy in the sky with diamonds) also causes the hallucinogenic effect.

Ergot toxicity can either be Gangrenous Ergotism or Convulsive Ergotism. Gangrenous ergotism is characterized by fluid in the limb, sensation loss, and necrosis of the affected tissue. The convulsive Ergotism is associated with hallucination, paranoia, and muscle spasm. One explanation for the cause of event of 1518 is that the Ergot that grew on the Rye in Strasbourg was the hallucinogenic fungus which led to the medieval dance battle to death effect. But it will be very unlikely for someone with ergot toxicity to dance for days unstop and die from it.

The other explanation is Mass psychogenic illness (MPI) or Mass hysteria a it was called in the past, and there are two types which are Anxiety MPI and Motor MPI. The formal is associated with dizziness, over-breathing, headache, and fainting, and this is usually triggered by certain odors or events that an be seen as harmful. The later which is usually triggered by stress is identified by shaking, twitching, weeping, inability to work, laughing, inability to communicate, and a state of hallucination. and all these fades off after the stress has subsided.