The Ghost of Delusions Past

While people might think our modern, technological culture is more sophisticated, they may be surprised by the constant themes of mass hysteria. In 1630, a poison scare gripped the Italian city of Milan. Rumors that the grain stores and fruits had been poisoned spread like wild fire. An old man, accused of applying the "poison" when he was caught wiping a stool was seized and killed by a mob. One unfortunate barber was tortured and executed after vigilantes mistook his tonics for toxic potions.

If you think the Milan mobs were just a bunch of superstitious yokels barely out of the Middle Ages, think again. In September of 1944, the police department of Mattoon, Illinois was inundated with calls about a "mad gasser" on the prowl. It started with a call from a woman who claimed that her daughter had been overcome with nausea after being misted with a vapor by a mysterious figure lurking near her bedroom window. Within two weeks after the local press published a story about the "anesthetic prowler," nearly thirty "victims" complained of nausea, dizziness, and strange chemical smells.

At least the good citizens of Mattoon refrained from killing anyone, but the psychology of group hysteria that we usually associate with the Salem witch trials or the murderous mobs of the Middle Ages is still at work today. Bartholomew and Goode recount many recent examples of hysteria and delusion, some all too close to home. More knowledge seems only to have given people more to worry about.

Recent scares and urban legends-such as the Costa Rican bananas supposedly tainted with flesh-eating bacteria-now spread through our e-mail and Internet. "Scare-mail" about cancer-causing deodorant or suntan lotion circulates quickly, but the fears it plants in the public's mind tend to linger. All of this serves to remind us that in the Information Age, age-old rumors and panics simply have high-tech venues.

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