The Dance Epidemic of 1518
For those of you who think that the French don't know how to party, you obviously haven't heard of the dance epidemic of 1518 in Strasbourg. Those affected were in a constant state of delirium and danced for nearly a month straight. The dancing continued until people began to die of heat exhaustion, stroke, and heart attacks as they danced themselves to death from a literal dance fever.
It has now been concluded that this strange behaviour came from ergot poisoning. Ergotamine is an alkaloid which is found naturally in Claviceps (an ascomycetous fungus) which grows on wheat and rye plants and is often baked into bread when undetected. Ergotamine is responsible for vasodilation, which reduces circulation and leads to intense hallucinations and seizures when the brain does not receive enough oxygen.
Another interesting fact about Ergotamine is that it is used to synthesize lysergic acid, which is famously known for being the precursor to the popular drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Shown above is the structures of ergotamine, lysergic acid, and LSD.
