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that specifical ly deals with disease and illness is particularly relevant. providing a
background for subsequent discussions about novel illnesses. In this sense. a relevant
starting point lies in a small work by Frances Cattermole-Tally that originally appeared in
the "Topics. Notes and Comments" section of the journal Folklore in 1995. In this.
Cauermole-Tally discusses the Fantasies and realities surround ing the intrusion of non­
human organisms into the body. Beliefs in the possibility of such intrusions go "far back
in history and [are] almost world wide" (89). and transcriptions (or at least descrip tions)
of the stories that accompany them have appeared in folkloric texts for decades. For
instance. Thomas R. Brendle and Claude W. Unger's Folk stedicine ofthe Pennsylvania
Germans: 71,e NOII-OccIIlt Cures, published in 1935. mentions the Pennsylvania
Germans' usc of the word "wo rm" to describe intestina l parasites such as the tapewo rm
(qtd. in Catterr nole-Tally 1995. 89-90). What is critical about Cuttermole-Tally's article.
however, is not its descriptions of historical beliefs in animal intrusions. hut its discussion
of the problems inherent in many folkloristic works concerning those beliefs. "Fears of
worms or reptilian forms existing in one' s body are not without basis," Cuttcrmole-Tally
warns: "Just as many physicians often ignore or dismiss belief ...· about diseases. so most
folklorists overlook or ignore the reality that diseases might be caused by animals
residing in the human body" (Cattcrmolc-T ally 1995, 90, emphasis in original).
This call for what is essen tially academic belief. or at least willing suspension of
disbelief. in the beliefs of others is well-evidenced in Adrienne Mayor's "The Nessus
Shirt in the New World: Smallpox Blankets in History and Legend: ' Mayor ' s article
starts off by recognizing that smallpox blanket stories "may be based on historical fact"
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