The dancing plague that killed its own dancers

In July 1518, hundreds of people in Strasbourg began dancing uncontrollably for days on end — some reportedly collapsing or dying of exhaustion. Historian John Waller argues it was mass psychogenic illness fuelled by fear of a saint's curse amid famine and disease, not the popular 'ergot poisoning' theory, which he debunks — ergot causes vasoconstriction, which would prevent sustained dancing.

— John Waller, A Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518 — Icon Books, 2008
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