In Mississippi there is a story about a disease called Mercritis that slipped over from Europe. Men who catch it emit an odor that when inhaled by a beautiful woman, will make her homicidal.
There was a riot in the 1950’s during a Mercritis outbreak that swept the southern states and was covered up by the government and the medical community. Growing up in the south, people were always saying “Oh yeah, it’s true, my cousin’s friend had it…etc., etc., etc."
Gordy Daniels from Oklahoma City, OK
Our research online produced no actual medical references to this condition, but did produce rumor, speculation, and self promotion. Here is an account we found describing the “condition”.
Mercritis Condition (MC) typically leads its victim down a road of trouble, into a life of alienation, interspersed with moments of great violence. Mercritis effects less than 1/10,000,000 of the general population. It strikes males of any age and is only contracted, as far as we know, from the oral consumption of mass amounts of certain types of paint. One of the reasons Mercritis is rare is that paint consumption leads to massive organ failure and many who may have a grim chance of developing the rare disease die before MC manifests.
The prevailing theory holds that the victim’s skin, fed by secretions resident in the liver and kidneys, releases a mild odor that has an effect on women. Haruki Ryu, formerly of the Yokohama Crier and the only author of a book on the subject (loosely translated) "Mercritis, I run", 1968, Shyu Nai Press, Limited) said in a phone interview, "the scent seems to effect all women on a hormonal level that appears to alter them emotionally. Irritability and hostility tend to inhabit the milder range of reactivity. That pretty women are so hyper-activated by victims of MC has brought us to speculate on a possible relationship between hormonal activity and beauty. Hyper-activated reactions are called MAR (Mercritis Activated Rage) episodes. Why a woman with no history or pattern of violence would react so strongly to a man with MC has not been adequately studied. In a way, we’re all guessing, but in defense of my book, I operate from an educated guess.