Tarantism 277820 222465523 2008-06-29T14:04:29Z DOI bot 6652755 Citation maintenance. Formatted: title. You can [[WP:DOI|use this bot]] yourself! Please [[User:DOI_bot/bugs|report any bugs]]. '''Tarantism''' is an alleged, possibly deadly [[envenomation]], popularly believed to result from the bite of a kind of [[wolf spider]] called a "tarantula" (''[[Lycosa tarentula]]''). (These spiders are different from the broad class of spiders called "[[Tarantula]]s".) The condition was common in southern [[Italy]] during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There were strong suggestions that there is no organic cause for the heightened [[excitability]] and [[restlessness]] that gripped the victims. The stated belief of the time was that victims needed to engage in frenzied [[dancing]] to prevent [[death]] from tarantism. Supposedly a particular kind of dance, called the [[Tarantella]], evolved from this [[therapy]]. Many people have suggested that the whole business was a deceit to evade [[religious]] proscriptions against dancing. The cultural history of tarantism and the tarantella dance is discussed in [[John Compton]]'s introduction to the world of [[spiders]] called ''The Life of the Spider'', pages 56-57<ref>{{cite book | last = Compton | first = John | authorlink = John Compton | title = The life of the Spider | origyear = 1954 | publisher = Mentor Books | location = | quote = }}</ref>. He suggests that ancient [[Bacchanalian]] [[rite]]s that had been suppressed by the [[government]] went underground under the guise of emergency therapy for bite victims. Although the popular belief that tarantism results from a spider bite persists, it remains scientifically unsubstantiated. Donaldson, Cavanagh, and Rankin (1997)<ref>{{cite journal | last = Donaldson | first = LJ | authorlink = | coauthors = J Rankin | title = The Dancing Plague a public health conundrum | journal = Public Health | volume = 111 | issue = 4 | pages = 201–204 | format = PDF [fee required] | publisher = | location = | date = July 1997 | url = http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B73H6-484TJNY-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=cb3c891d8bf52aa95b1a398340e113be | doi = | id = | accessdate = 2008-04-26}}</ref> conclude that the actual cause or causes of tarantism remain unknown. Many historical and cultural references are associated with this disease and the ensuing "cure" - the [[Tarantella]]. It is, for example, a key image in [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s ''[[A Doll's House]]''. ==See also== *[[Dancing mania]] *[[Ergot]] [[Category:Toxicology]] [[fr:Tarentisme]] [[it:Tarantismo]] [[pl:Tarantyzm]] ==References== {{reflist}} {{culture-stub}}