| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Infected crops and the Salem witch hunts |
| 2006-06-28 |
| In the late 1600s, the Puritan settlement of Salem in Massachusetts toppled into chaos when accusations of witchcraft began to appear. Two young girls, aged nine and eleven, were said to have fallen victim to fits "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease," including screams, strange contortions, and throwing objects. The village doctor, unable to explain the symptoms, suggested that witchcraft may be afoot in Salem. Others in the settlement began to exhibit similar inexplicable behavior, and shortly the accusations began to fly. The infamous trials that followed left nineteen people hanged to death, and scores of others imprisoned under suspicion of supernatural wrongdoing. Today, few would suggest that those punished were actually guilty of witchcraft, but the true cause of the errant behavior in Salem's citizens is still a mystery. One theory– perhaps the most intriguing yet offered– suggests that the community's rye crop may have been partially to blame. . . . Salem, like many other communities in the past and present, harvested rye as part of their grain crops, and it was a staple in their diet. But it turns out that rye grass is susceptible to a particular fungus called Claviceps purpurea which infects the edible portions of the plant. During the ergot stage of this fungus' development, a cocktail of interesting alkaloids are present which will cause problems with circulation and neurotransmission when ingested by humans. A woman named Linnda Caporael was the first to suggest that Ergot of Rye may have contributed to the madness in the Salem trials. Wonder if a similar "cocktail of interesting alkaloids" might explain things like Democratic Underground and Cindy Sheehan? |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #11 ...No, that was my last flight supervisor in USAF Recruiting. Or my ex-wife, I always get them confused. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-06-28 21:11 |
| #10 "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease," including screams, strange contortions, and throwing objects. I worked for a moonbat DIA GG-15 retiree once who exibited all those traits along with occasional whimpering. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-06-28 17:05 |
| #9 The spasms caused by ergot poisoning are called St. Vitus Dance. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-06-28 17:01 |
| #8 And I thought it was St. Vitus's Dance. There was a metal band with a name like that back in the 80's if memory serves. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2006-06-28 16:06 |
| #7 The above applied to La Belle France, of course. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-06-28 15:43 |
| #6 Ergot = precursor to LSD. It would get into the crops, and then whole regions of people would eat bread and trip. From what I understand, ergot poisoning is a lot less pleasant than LSD intoxication. IIRC, it was called "danse de Saint-Guy" (Saint Guy's dance"), which in familiar language still designate a purposeless, frantic agitation; victims would be peasants forced to eat normally unedible, spoiled by mushrooms and moisture, crops in time of hunger; they would then get both devastating physical effects (with extremities painfully swelling, and litteraly rotting away, le "feu ardent/harsh fire" IIRC) and "bad trips" which led to convulsive mindless agitation, as the nervous system was attacked and destroyed by the mushroom's toxins... and this on the scale of whole families and villages. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-06-28 15:42 |
| #5 Or was it St. Elmo's Fire? Can't remember, one was an epidemic, the other a suckass 80's movie. Either way it sucked. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-06-28 15:35 |
| #4 I can remember reading that entire villages in Europe would be affected in a similar manner. St. Anthony's Fire is widely thought to have been caused by Rye Ergot, in which entire communities went stark raving mad. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-06-28 15:34 |
| #3 I've wondered for a while if the ugly clothes, hair, and wacky ideas hatched in the 70's were partially a product of breathing in too much leaded gasoline exhaust. I remember my parents sitting in brutal hours-long traffic jams with all the windows open... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-06-28 14:47 |
| #2 They had at least one such infection - maybe more - in Europe, too, several hundred years ago. In France, maybe? I remember reading about it a long time ago. Mike: "Wonder if a similar "cocktail of interesting alkaloids" might explain things like Democratic Underground and Cindy Sheehan?" Naaaahhhh, they're just nuts. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-06-28 14:44 |
| #1 Ergot = precursor to LSD. It would get into the crops, and then whole regions of people would eat bread and trip. From what I understand, ergot poisoning is a lot less pleasant than LSD intoxication. |
| Posted by: gromky 2006-06-28 14:36 |