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Quotation from St. Vitus and the Dancing Mania by Vitus tradition; J. F. C. Hecker; Benjamin Guy Babington
“Our business here is only with that morbid sympathy by the aid of which the dancing mania of the Middle Ages grew into a real epidemic”
St. Vitus and the Dancing Mania, The Dancing Mania, Ch. IV, trans. Benjamin Guy Babington (1833/1888)
Hecker's conclusion frames the outbreaks through contagious emotion and imitation rather than a single bodily poison.
Citation: "Our business here is only with that morbid sympathy by the aid of which the dancing mania of the Middle Ages grew into a real epidemic" — Vitus tradition; J. F. C. Hecker; Benjamin Guy Babington, St. Vitus and the Dancing Mania, The Dancing Mania, Ch. IV, trans. Benjamin Guy Babington (1833/1888). (id st-vitus-and-dancing-mania-q4)
