Mystery of the disease

More than 500 years ago in Strasbourg (France), a strange epidemic caused hundreds of people to dance together to death.

Referring to the pandemic phrase, we will probably think of the dreaded diseases that claimed many lives in history. It was the Middle Ages "Black Death" , HIV / AIDS in the late twentieth century and most recently Ebola in Africa.

However, there are diseases that are not only scary but also so mysterious that until now, people have not been able to explain the cause. The tragedy that occurred in July 1518 at Strasbourg (France) is one of such typical stories.

Derived from a woman's crazy dance .

In the summer of July 1518, the woman named Frau Troffea entered a small alley in Strasbourg (France). In front of the crowd, she started dancing "violently".

There was no music, nor an emotion on her face, but she kept jumping indifferently as if there was an orchestra around. More specifically, Troffea jumps all day and night without showing any tiredness. Until the sixth day, the dance stopped when the girl was exhausted and died.

At first, people thought that she had neurological problems or being possessed by demons had such unusual actions. But after Troffea danced, another person began to dance, one more person. A week later, people counted 34 people who had mimicked the same action as Troffea all over the streets of the city.

Strasbourg street - where "death dance" devastated this city.

The incident became increasingly strange after only a short time, about 400 people in Strasbourg participated in this dance. And like the previous cases, they danced frantically to death. According to medical records of the time, the victims died of heart attack and exhaustion.

Residents at the time said that they could completely cure the strange disease called "dancing disease" by taking poison poison. So they set up wooden stages and invited musicians to help the victims dance.

As a result, they not only failed to suppress "disease", but also caused dozens of people to dance constantly and say goodbye to life because of heart attack.

. to the mysterious hypotheses behind it

At first glance, the tragedy seems like folk tales to scare children. In theory, Frau Troffea and the crazy dancers must have died of dehydration after being constantly campaigning. According to doctors, they only live up to three days.

But ancient documents claim that they continue to dance for many days without eating or drinking. Even the best athletes, marathon runners today probably can't do that.

However, researchers have also hypothesized many questions to answer the question about the strange epidemic. Most people believe that it is possible that Troffea and the victims have suffered from a neurological condition due to severe stress and affect the whole community.

However, the cause of this disease is explained with many different bases.

The first hypothesis suggests that the reason Troffea and others suffer from crazy dancing to death is because of poverty. At the time of the story, Strasbourg was struggling in a terrible famine.

Therefore, many people may have been severely stressed and sick. However, this argument also has many flaws, because the description from ancient documents confirms that the victim is very healthy and does not show signs of convulsions, weak movements like hunger.

The second hypothesis is directed towards the possibility of victims being poisoned. Specifically, Troffea and others who ate rye had mushroom growth.

When eating rye, mold will cause the body to twitch like dancing. But if this is the truth, the victims should have died immediately by the poisonous chicken mushroom, which can cause death when eaten.

The third hypothesis is given by Michigan State University professor John Waller. He thinks this mass psychological disorder originates from superstition.

Their victims are mostly starving people, they have nothing, do not know how to rely on religion, but fear fills their minds. Therefore, they may have danced with the desire of the Supreme Being until their death.

* So far, the debate about this story is still not over. And the epidemic of "Death Dance" still lingered in the treasure of mankind's unanswered answers.