The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine were a group of 19th-century

lumberjack Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...

s who exhibited a rare disorder of unknown origin. The syndrome entails an exaggerated

startle reflex In animals, including humans, the startle response is a largely unconscious defensive response to sudden or threatening stimuli, such as sudden noise or sharp movement, and is associated with negative affect.Rammirez-Moreno, David. "A computatio ...

which may be described as an uncontrollable "jump". Individuals with this condition could exhibit sudden movements in all parts of the body. Jumping Frenchmen syndrome shares some symptoms with other startle disorders. Individuals with this condition were first found in the

Moosehead Lake Moosehead Lake is a deep, coldwater lake located in Piscataquis County in Northwestern Maine. It is the largest lake in Maine and the largest lake wholly within New England, the second-largest lake in New England after Lake Champlain, and the l ...

region of

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, and were first described by

George Miller Beard George Miller Beard (May 8, 1839 – January 23, 1883) was an American neurologist who popularized the term neurasthenia, starting around 1869. Beard is remembered best for having defined neurasthenia as a medical condition with symptoms of ...

in 1878.

Signs and symptoms

recorded individuals who would obey any command given suddenly, even if it meant striking a loved one; the Jumping Frenchmen seemed to react abnormally to sudden stimuli. The more common and less intense symptoms consisted of jumping, yelling, and hitting. These individuals exhibited outrageous bursts, and many described themselves as ticklish and shy. Other cases involved

echolalia Echolalia is the unsolicited repetition of vocalizations made by another person; when repeated by the same person, it is called palilalia. In its profound form it is automatic and effortless. It is one of the echophenomena, closely related to ...

(repeating vocalizations made by another person) and

echopraxia Echopraxia (also known as echokinesis) is the involuntary repetition or imitation of another person's actions. Similar to echolalia, the involuntary repetition of sounds and language, it is one of the echophenomena ("automatic imitative actions ...

(repeating movements made by another person). Beard noted that the men were " suggestible" and that they "could not help repeating the word or sounds that came from the person that ordered them any more than they could help striking, dropping, throwing, jumping, or starting".

Causes

The cause of Jumping Frenchmen syndrome is unknown.NORD
/ref> One theory is that it is a genetic condition. An observation of 50 cases found the disorder to be remotely located and concentrated in the northern regions of Maine. Fourteen of these cases were found in four families. Another set of cases were found in a single family where the father, his two sons, and his two grandchildren exhibited "jumping" behavior. It may also be a

culture-bound syndrome In medicine and medical anthropology, a culture-bound syndrome, culture-specific syndrome, or folk illness is a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that are considered to be a recognizable disease only within a specific society or c ...

mass psychogenic illness Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for c ...

, or a formed habit. These French "jumpers" lived in a very remote region and most were lumberjacks. This type of small community would allow for a majority to adapt to this sort of reaction. Also, instances of many being shy may imply that the "jumper" was positively reinforced by the sudden attention as the entertainment for a group. In 1885,

Georges Gilles de la Tourette Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (; 30 October 1857 – 22 May 1904) was a French neurologist and the namesake of Tourette syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by tics. His main contributions in medicine we ...

included Jumping Frenchmen syndrome in the typology of "convulsive tic illness"; studies of the condition in the 1980s cast doubt on whether the phenomenon was in fact a physical condition similar to

Tourette syndrome Tourette syndrome (TS), or simply Tourette's, is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Common tics are blinkin ...

. Documentation of direct observation of "Jumping Frenchmen" has been scarce, and while video evidence was recorded by several researchers that showed the condition to be real, MH and JM Saint-Hilaire concluded from studying eight affected people that it was brought on by conditions at their lumber camps and was psychological, not neurological.

Differential diagnosis

Jumping Frenchmen of Maine syndrome must be distinguished from other conditions involving the startle reflex or

tic A tic is a sudden and repetitive motor movement or vocalization that is not rhythmic and involves discrete muscle groups. Tics are typically brief and may resemble a normal behavioral characteristic or gesture. Tics can be invisible to the obs ...

is characterized by multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. There are many overlaps when compared clinically, but the abnormal "jumping" response is always provoked, unlike the involuntary tics in Tourette syndrome.

Similar conditions

* Latah is a disorder found in

southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

in which one's startle response is similar to a state of

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

with repetitive speech or movements. * Meryachenie is a disorder found in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

that also displays an action similar to "jumping". *

Neurasthenia Neurasthenia ( and () 'weak') is a term that was first used as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves. It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist Georg ...

is a disorder with a startle response during periods of great fatigue. *

Hyperekplexia Hyperekplexia (; "exaggerated surprise") is a neurological disorder characterized by a pronounced startle response to tactile or acoustic stimuli and an ensuing period of hypertonia. The hypertonia may be predominantly truncal, attenuated durin ...

is a rare autosomal dominant neurological disease. The symptoms begin in infancy with

hypertonia Hypertonia is a term sometimes used synonymously with ''spasticity'' and ''rigidity'' in the literature surrounding damage to the central nervous system, namely upper motor neuron lesions. Impaired ability of damaged motor neurons to regulate ...

, an abnormal muscle tension that decreases flexibility, and an exaggerated startle in all ages of life.

History

Beard had a unique interest in unusual disorders and took the opportunity to observe the epidemic in Maine. He recorded "startle, jumping, and tic-like behaviors"Kushner (2000), p. 22. among the

French Canadians French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the provi ...

and lumberjacks who lived near

in northern Maine. He published his descriptions of the Jumping Frenchmen in 1880, and he believed the condition was hereditary. History of Medicine professor Howard I. Kushner calls Beard's description "the most influential and detailed study" of these behaviors. According to Kushner, the French physician

Jean-Martin Charcot Jean-Martin Charcot (; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurology, neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise A ...

chose his resident,

, to investigate the "relationship between

tic disorder Tic disorders are defined in the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM) based on type (motor or phonic) and duration of tics (sudden, rapid, nonrhythmic movements). Tic disorders are defined similarly by the World Health ...

s and jumping and startle behaviors reported in Malaysia, Siberia, and Maine";Kushner (2000), p. 21. Gilles de la Tourette translated Beard's descriptions and published them one year after Beard's papers. In 1885, Tourette published "Study of a Nervous Affliction" where he included the startle disorders in the typology of what he called "convulsive tic illness", that included what later came to be known as Tourette syndrome. Kushner argues that none of the patients studied by Tourette supported this assertion, and says that "many of his contemporaries refuted Gilles de la Tourette's typology".Kushner (2000), p. 25.

References

Bibliography

Kushner, HI
''A cursing brain?: The histories of Tourette syndrome''.
Harvard University Press, 2000.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jumping Frenchmen Of Maine History of mental disorders Culture-bound syndromes North Maine Woods Health in Maine Maine society French-Canadian culture in Maine French-Canadian American history