Against the effects produced by the
tarantula's bite, or by the sight of the sufferers, neither youth
nor age afforded any protection; so that even old men of ninety
threw aside their crutches at the sound of the tarantella, and, as
if some magic potion, restorative of youth and vigour, were
flowing through their veins, joined the most extravagant dancers.
Ferdinando saw a boy five years old seized with the dancing mania,
in consequence of the bite of a tarantula, and, what is almost
past belief, were it not supported by the testimony of so credible
an eye-witness, even deaf people were not exempt from this
disorder, so potent in its effect was the very sight of those
affected, even without the exhilarating emotions caused by music.
Subordinate nervous attacks were much more frequent during this
century than at any former period, and an extraordinary icy
coldness was observed in those who were the subject of them; so
that they did not recover their natural heat until they had
engaged in violent dancing. Their anguish and sense of oppression
forced from them a cold perspiration; the secretion from the
kidneys was pale, and they had so great a dislike to everything
cold, that when water was offered them they pushed it away with
abhorrence.
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