1802-1804, American Antiquarian Society, Autobiographies & Biographies, Methodists, Other Bodily Exercises & General References
“In this year [1804] that strange disorder ‘the jerks’ overran all Western Tennessee. It attacked the righteous and the wicked—an involuntary muscular exercise, which drew the subjects affected backward and forward with a force and quickness perhaps previously unknown to the human family….”
1805-1809, Books, Essays & Treatises, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians
“I presume not to condemn the persons thus influenced [by the jerks], nor to detract from the sincerity of their devotion; but my wish is to remove the delusion of supposing it to be a bodily disease, and leave the intrinsic merits of the subject to Him, who “searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men….”
