and, at that time, very degenerate people, by exorcisms, which,
with some, procured them greater respect than ever, because they
thus visibly restored thousands of those who were affected. In
general, however, there prevailed a want of confidence in their
efficacy, and then the sacred rites had as little power in
arresting the progress of this deeply-rooted malady as the prayers
and holy services subsequently had at the altars of the greatly-
revered martyr St. Vitus. We may therefore ascribe it to accident
merely, and to a certain aversion to this demoniacal disease,
which seemed to lie beyond the reach of human skill, that we meet
with but few and imperfect notices of the St. Vitus's dance in the
second half of the fifteenth century. The highly-coloured
descriptions of the sixteenth century contradict the notion that
this mental plague had in any degree diminished in its severity,
and not a single fact is to be found which supports the opinion
that any one of the essential symptoms of the disease, not even
excepting the tympany, had disappeared, or that the disorder
itself had become milder in its attacks. The physicians never, as
it seems, throughout the whole of the fifteenth century, undertook
the treatment of the Dancing Mania, which, according to the
prevailing notions, appertained exclusively to the servants of the
Church. Against demoniacal disorders they had no remedies, and
though some at first did promulgate the opinion that the malady
had its origin in natural circumstances, such as a hot
temperament, and other causes named in the phraseology of the
schools, yet these opinions were the less examined as it did not
appear worth while to divide with a jealous priesthood the care of
a host of fanatical vagabonds and beggars.