Wesley Corpus

In the afternoon I preached on the side of an hill near the town, where we soon forgot the cold. I trust there will be not only a knowing, but a loving, people in this place. About seven Mr. B. was occasionally mentioning what had lately occurred in the next parish. I thought it worth a farther inquiry, and therefore ordered our horses to be brought immediately. Mr. B. guided us to Mr. Ogilvie’s house, the Minister of the parish; who informed us that a strange disorder had appeared in his parish, between thirty and forty years ago; but that nothing of the kind had been known there since, till some time in September last. A boy was then taken ill, and so continues still. In the end of January, or beginning of February, many other children were taken, chiefly girls, and a few grown persons. They begin with an involuntary shaking of their hands and feet. Then their lips are convulsed; next their tongue, which seems to cleave to the roof of the mouth. Then the eyes are set, staring terribly, and the whole face variously distorted. Pre sently they start up, and jump ten, fifteen, or twenty times together straight upward, two, three, or more feet from the ground. Then they start forward, and run with amazing swiftness, two, three, or five hundred yards. Frequently they run up, like a cat, to the top of an house, and jump on the ridge of it, as on the ground. But wherever they are, they never fall, or miss their footing at all. After they have run and jumped for some time, they drop down as dead. When they come to themselves, they usually tell when and where they shall be taken again: Frequently, how often and where they shall jump, and to what places they shall run. I asked, “Are any of them near?” He said, “Yes, at those houses.” We walked thither without delay. One of them was four years and half old; the other about eighteen. The child, we found, had had three or four fits that day, running and jumping like the rest, and in particular leaping many times from a high table to the ground without the least hurt. The young woman was the only person of them all, who used to keep her senses during the fit.