The Epidemics of the Middle Ages, Volumes 1-2

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Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, 1835 - Black Death - 206 pages
 

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Page 189 - This book is a preservation photocopy. It is made in compliance with copyright law and produced on acid-free archival 60# book weight paper which meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper) Preservation photocopying and binding by Acme Bookbinding Charlestown, Massachusetts 2001 2044 037 119 260 The borrower must return this item on or before the last date stamped below.
Page 3 - Germany, and who, united by one 'common delusion, exhibited to the public, both in the streets and in the churches, the following strange spectacle : They formed circles hand in hand, and, appearing to have lost all control over their senses, continued dancing, regardless of the bystanders, for hours together, in wild delirium, until at length they fell to the ground in a state of exhaustion.
Page 2 - Bacchantic leaps by which it was characterized, and which gave to those affected, while performing their wild dance, and screaming and foaming with fury, all the appearance of persons possessed. It did not remain confined to particular localities, but was propagated by the sight of the sufferers...
Page 3 - ... regardless of the bystanders, for hours together in wild delirium, until at length they fell to the ground in a state of exhaustion. They then complained of extreme oppression, and groaned as if in the agonies of death, until they were swathed in cloths bound tightly round their waists, upon which they again recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next attack.
Page 137 - ... first introduction into the country by these paroxysms, whereby the devotions of the church were much impeded, he obviated their repetition by assuring his parishioners that no treatment was more effectual than immersion in cold water; and as his kirk was fortunately contiguous to a freshwater lake, he gave notice that attendants should be at hand during divine service to ensure the proper means of cure. The sequel need scarcely be told. The fear of being carried out of the church, and into the...
Page 3 - While dancing, they neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted by visions...
Page 127 - One day I went privately, with a companion, to see my wife dance, and kept at a short distance, as I was ashamed to go near the crowd. On looking steadfastly upon her, while dancing or jumping, more like a deer than a human being, I said that it certainly was not my wife; at which my companion burst into a fit of laughter, from which he could scarcely refrain all the way home. Men are sometimes afflicted with this dreadful disorder, but not frequently. Among the Amhara and Galla it is not so common.
Page 6 - Tongres, and many other towns of Belgium the dancers appeared with garlands in their hair, and their waists girt with cloths, that they might, as soon as the paroxysm was over, receive immediate relief on the attack of the tympany. This bandage was, by the insertion of a stick, easily twisted tight. Many, however, obtained more relief from kicks and blows, which they found numbers of persons ready to administer; for, wherever the dancers appeared, the people assembled in crowds to gratify their curiosity...
Page 51 - England ; where it advanced so gradually, that a period of three months elapsed before it reached London. || The Northern Kingdoms were attacked by it in 1349. Sweden, indeed, not until November of that year : almost two years after its eruption in Avignon. § Poland received the plague in 1349, probably from Germany,*; if not from the northern countries ; but in Russia, it did not make its appearance until 1351, more than three years after it had broken out in Constantinople. Instead of advancing...
Page 10 - A few months after this dancing malady had made its appearance at Aix-la-Chapelle, it broke out at Cologne, where the number of those possessed amounted to more than five hundred ; and about the same time at Metz, the streets of which place are said to have been filled with eleven hundred dancers.

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