tarantism, tarantism us

[Fr. tar an tis me; Ger. tarantism us, from Italian tarantula (q. v.).] Mental Path.: An epidemic dancing mania, prev. alent in Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, originating in an exaggerated dread of the consequences arising from the bite of the tarantula (q. v.), as a remedy for which the dance of the same in Apulia, but spread over the great part of the pen. name was adopted. This mania was most prevalent insula. Tarantism was closely allied to St. Vitus' Dance, and other epidemic nervous disorders of the latter period of the middle ages, but differed from them in its origin, in the wasting away of the sufferers, in their rhythmic movements, their partiality for bright and luminous surfaces, their pa ion for music, and its employment as a means of cure. According to other authorities, the disease consisted in the sufferer being attacked with extreme somnolency, which could only be overcome by music and dancing. It has long been satisfactorily established that the bite of the tarantula is incapable of producing serious consequences; so that while it is po ible that some minor physical symp toms may have resulted from the direct effect of the bite, the mental disturbances and muscular tar, v. t. [TAR, 8.] 1. To smear or cover with tar. *2. To smear, to cover, to impregnate. "I have nointed ye, and tarr'd ye with my doctrine, And yet the murren sticks to ye." Beaum. & Flet.: Spanish Curate , iii. 2. (1) Tarred with the same brush: Having the same vices or peculiarities; subject to the same treatment. (2) To tar and feather a person: To pour heated tar over him, and then cover him with feathers. The practice is very old, and is still occasionally used. *tar (2), s. [TARE.]