SALEM WITCH TRIALS

It is proposed that the trials of the American North East in 1692 could be attributed to an outbreak of ergot poisoning. Ergot is a poisonous mould (microfungi) which can sometimes be found in wheat and other cereals. Its alkaloids can affect the every system of the human body. Symptoms often include hallucinations, fits, infertility and cardiac arrest amongst a whole list of others. Ergot is a bad thing and can affect us in 2 different forms: gangrenous resulting in limb loss and convulsive, characterised by nervous dysfunction such as tremours, writhing, muscle spasms, delusions and other unpleasant psychotic episodes. Just 2% of ergot in bread can cause a community-wide epidemic of ergotism.

The behaviour present at the Salem Witch trials and its epidemiology have been studied at great length and matched to a model of ergotism and found to have striking similarities. What follows is a much simplified version of the evidence and although individual experiences can be attributed to any number of possible causes, it is the overall patterns that are important.

The symptoms of the teenage girls at the centre of the accusations were largely convulsive without loss of consciousness. They were also present in some of the animals of the village. Temporary blindness, deafness and muteness were also recorded in both medical and judicial records as well as burning sensations, visions and out of body experiences. Some victims reported swellings and lameness, several people and animals died. All of these behaviours are common to ergot sufferers. Other evidence to suggest the presence of ergot is the colour of the bread. It was notably red and it is known that flour with a 3% content of ergot is reddened. There is a problem here though. The bread noted as being a different colour was the sacremental bread and there are any number of reasons and methods why this may be artificially coloured. This is not in itself conclusive but may add to the overall weight of evidence for the presence ergot. Other evidence relates to known climatic conditions, dampness, crop growth/failures and siting in relation to affected families showing that it was certainly possible and most probable that ergot was present in the flour that the village's bread was made from.

Although the surviving records have limitations in themselves making certainty of any explanation impossible. We mustn't lose sight of the other, very important non-medical causes; the influence of the exotic housekeeper and her stories on the impressionable young Puritan girls; the human nature of distrust against anyone different, some of the first accusations were against the 'unfortunates' of the village (the bedridden and infirm and the old low status women); the age-old land disputes; the judicial decisions to accept evidence not usually admissable in court even in those days and the multitude of other social tensions present in 17th Century village life.
Taking the available evidence from many sources suggests the reasons for the accusations of witchcraft in Salem were complex and varied but could have been, at least in part, due to the effects of ergot.

For more in-depth arguments about the above theory I recommend reading 'Poisons of the past- moulds, epidemics and History' by Mary Kilbourne Matossian.

And so onto some more curiosities...