Correspondence

Mass Fainting at Medieval Rock Concerts

N Engl J Med 1995; 333:1361November 16, 1995

Article

To the Editor:

There may be interesting parallels between the mass fainting at rock concerts reported by Lempert and Bauer (June 22 issue)1 and the epidemics of Tanzwuth (dancing mania) during the Middle Ages, in which music caused victims to dance until they fainted. Epidemic Tanzwuth was characterized by “stimulating” music and fits of wild dancing, leaping, hopping, and clapping that ended in syncope. The condition was not always unpleasant; victims sought out musicians to play the music that brought on symptoms, and sometimes they planned for annual attacks. Physicians documented such familiar features as hyperventilation, tachycardia, palpitation, and histories of recent fasting, lack of sleep, and binge drinking of wine.2-4 The condition affected girls and young unmarried women disproportionately; they followed minstrels who played intoxicating music on noisy instruments with shrill tones to “demoniacal festival[s] for the rude multitude[s].”4 Tarantism, an Italian version of Tanzwuth superstitiously linked to tarantula bites, affected young victims dressed in “curious vests and necklaces and suchlike ornaments . . . [and] clothes of a gay color.”3 In the “mosh pits” of the fourteenth century, Tanzwuth victims even “slammed” each other and tossed each other into the air. Town councils throughout Europe attempted to control the epidemics by hiring some conservative musicians to calm the dancers with the contemporary version of today's Muzak.

The cause of Tanzwuth epidemics was never discovered. There are obvious similarities to the phenomenon of mass suggestion and some episodes of epidemic hysteria. Writing in the 1830s, Hecker associated Tanzwuth with an “age so little favorable to freedom of thought.”4 The influences of Tanzwuth remain in both popular and medical culture. The Italian folk dance known as the tarantella and heard in the music of Chopin, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky features quick hops and foot-tapping movements that are directly descended from tarantism. A famous drawing by Pieter Breughel the Elder shows a Tanzwuth epidemic. And physicians still use the original term for Tanzwuth, “St. Vitus' dance,” honoring the patron saint of the disease. (The term's later application to Sydenham's chorea recognizes the degree to which both conditions affected young girls.) Paracelsus may have had the last word both on the divine origin of diseases and on saintly nosology when he wrote of St. Vitus' dance, “We do not wish to admit . . . that the saints can cause . . . diseases that are eventually named after them.”5 Mass fainting at rock concerts may simply be an old phenomenon reappearing in a new electronic age.

David M. Morens, M.D.
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822

5 References

1. 1

   Lempert T, Bauer M. Mass fainting at rock concerts. N Engl J Med 1995;332:1721-1721
   Full Text | Web of Science | Medline

2. 2

   Kircher A. Magnes, sive de Arte magnetica opus tripartitum. Rome: H. Scheus, 1641.
   

3. 3

   Baglivi G. Dissertatio I. de anatome, morsu, & effectibus tarantulae. Rome: D.A. Herculis, 1696.
   

4. 4

   Hecker JFC. Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter. Berlin, Germany: T.C.F. Enslin, 1832.
   

5. 5

   Bombast von Hohenheim PAT [“Paracelsus”]. Dess hocherfahrnesten Medici Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi Schreyben von den Kranckheyten so die Vernunfft berauben. Basel, Switzerland: Adamum von Bodenstein, 1567.
   

Citing Articles (1)

Citing Articles

1. 1

   David M Morens, Gregory K Folkers, Anthony S Fauci. (2008) Emerging infections: a perpetual challenge. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 8:11, 710-719
   CrossRef