[Dixielandjazz] ScienceDaily: Study Finds Dementia May AffectMusical Tastes

[Jerry Gordon]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:04:28 -0400 "Fred Spencer" <drjz at bealenet.com>
writes:
...
> The most 
> interesting 
> account is in the 17th century when it controlled the Italian 
> "Dancing 
> Mania." In this psycho-epidemic the bite of the tarantula spider was 
> wrongly 
> blamed for producing an uncontrollable urge to continue dancing to 
> the point 
> of exhaustion. The only cure was music written in the form of--what 
> else?--a 
> "Tarantella." Cheers.
> 
> Fred

This was last Friday's word of the day from wordsmith.org:

tarantism (TAR-uhn-tiz-uhm) noun
 
   An uncontrollable urge to dance.
 
[After Taranto, a town in southern Italy where this phenomenon was
experienced
during the 15-17th centuries. It's not clear whether tarantism was the
symptom
of a spider's bite or its cure, or it may have been just a pretext to
dodge a
prohibition against dancing. The names of the dance tarantella and the
spider
tarantula are both derived from the same place.]


Jerry Gordon, Troy, NY
Webmaster for http://APlaceForJazz.org