{"id":6267,"date":"2016-01-31T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T02:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=6267"},"modified":"2025-06-20T20:46:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:46:06","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-january-30-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=6267","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour for January 30, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Dancing\u00a0Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Dancing Plague\u00a0(or\u00a0Dance Epidemic)\u00a0of 1518\u00a0was a case of\u00a0dancing mania\u00a0that occurred in\u00a0Strasbourg,\u00a0Alsace\u00a0(then part of the\u00a0Holy Roman Empire) in July 1518. Around 400 people took to dancing for days without rest, and, over the period of about one month, some of those affected died of\u00a0heart attack,\u00a0stroke, or\u00a0exhaustion.<\/p>\n

The outbreak began in July 1518, when a woman, Mrs Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg.\u00a0This lasted somewhere between four to six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers, predominantly female. Some of these people eventually died from heart attacks, strokes, or exhaustion.<\/p>\n

Historical documents, including “physician notes, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles, and even notes issued by the Strasbourg city council” are clear that the victims danced.\u00a0It is not known why these people danced, some even to their deaths.<\/p>\n

As the dancing plague worsened, concerned nobles sought the advice of local physicians, who ruled out\u00a0astrological\u00a0and\u00a0supernatural\u00a0causes, instead announcing that the plague was a “natural disease” caused by “hot blood”. However, instead of prescribing\u00a0bleeding, authorities encouraged more dancing, in part by opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and even constructing a wooden stage. The authorities did this because they believed that the dancers would recover only if they danced continuously night and day. To increase the effectiveness of the cure, authorities even paid for musicians to keep the afflicted moving.<\/p>\n

Historian John Waller stated that a marathon runner could not have lasted the intense workout that the men and women died from hundreds of years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Culled from: Wikipedia<\/a>
\nGraciously suggested by: My Awesome GF Paula<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Morbid Mirth Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

So I am kind of obsessed with the skeleton calendars produced by the Antikamnia Chemical Company<\/a> in the late 19th\/early 20th century. I keep thinking someone will surely release reproductions of them as prints so that I can have my favorite (Sep\/Oct 1897 as shown below) on my wall. \u00a0I did find a few on Etsy<\/a>, but not the ones I want. \u00a0I’m still looking, but I did stumble across a beautiful “reproduction” of one on Ebay.<\/p>\n

First, here’s my favorite – the most beautiful baby that has ever existed. If anyone finds a print of this, please let me know!
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then here’s the original of the “reproduction”:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Dancing\u00a0Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The\u00a0Dancing Plague\u00a0(or\u00a0Dance Epidemic)\u00a0of 1518\u00a0was a case of\u00a0dancing mania\u00a0that occurred in\u00a0Strasbourg,\u00a0Alsace\u00a0(then part of the\u00a0Holy Roman Empire) in July 1518. Around 400 people took to dancing for days without rest, and, over the period of about one month, some of those affected died of\u00a0heart attack,\u00a0stroke, or\u00a0exhaustion. The outbreak began in July 1518, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-mirth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6267"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14084,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions\/14084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}