TARANTISM may be defined a leaping or dancing mania, originating in, or supposed to originate in, an animal poison. The name is supposed to be derived from the ground spider, tarantula (q.v.), which conveyed the poison into the human body by its bite. The gesticulations, contortions, and cries somewhat resemble those observed in St. Vi tus's dance, and other epidemic nervous diseases of the middle ages, with which taran tism was contemporaneous; but the affection differed from these in its origin, in the cachexia present, in the elegance of the movements of the victims, in their partiality for red colors, bright and luminous surfaces, their passion for music, and in their restora tion depending upon the use of instrumental, or vocal music as a remedy. Although the sufferers were subjected to extraordinary treatment, such as being buried up to the neck in earth, the success of music was so universal and invariable, that a class of tunes and songs was composed, called tarentella, to be employed in the cure of the tarantati.
These have lingered long after the extinction of the malady, and may still be heard in the wilder districts of Italy. While it is highly probable that the physical symptoms were due to the bite of spiders, the mental disturbances and muscular agitation should be traced to the secondary effects of these upon the nervous system and imagination. It appeared in various parts of Italy, but was most prevalent in Apulia, where the insects abound. No age or class appears to have been exempt, for we read of a philosophic bishop who allowed himself to be bitten by a tarantula, dancing, etc., as fast and furl ously as the peasantry.—Hecker, Epidemics of Middle Ages, p. 110; Madden, Phantasmata, or Illusions and Fanaricisms, vol. i. p. 415; Milligen, Curiosities of Medical Experiense, p. 88.