Salem Witch Trials

There are still occasional modern outbreaks of ergotism, such as in Ukrania and Ireland in 1929, and in Belgium in 1953. It has been suggested that the Salem witch trials of 1692 may have been sparked by ergotism, although others favor a social psychological explanation for the events (Matossian 1982 Spanos 1983). 

In Salem county in the north-eastern United States an outbreak of bewitchment started in December 1691 and continued into 1692, reaching a peak in April and then again in July. Of the thirty people affected, twenty-four complained of fits, of being pinched, pricked, or bitten, all of which were considered to be symptoms of bewitchment . These bewitchment cases led to the infamous Salem witch trials, of which there are court records. The trials continued until October 1692 when they were prohibited by the governor of Massachusetts, by which time twenty people had been executed. The events have been chillingly portrayed in Arthur Miller s play The Crucible. 

Spanos, N-P- and). Gottlieb 1976. Ergotism and the Salem witch trials Science 194 1390—1394. See Caporael 1976. 

Historians have noted that many of the behaviors described for accused "witches and their purported victims during the Salem witch trials period of American history resemble signs of ergotism. Ergotism is caused by a mixture of naturally occurring ergot alkaloids, not methy-... 

Cotton Mather publishes his Wonders of the Invisible World. Written to justify the witch trials at Salem, it is offered as an account of the suffering brought upon the country by... 

Luckily, the witch trials of Salem are behind us, because I suspect you re a sorcerer. 

Thomas Ady was a foremost English critic of the witch-hunts. His book, A Candle in the Dark (1655), was quoted vainly by the Reverend George Burroughs at his trial in Salem. Ady s attack on the witch mania was two-pronged. On the one hand, he tried to show that contemporary proofs of witchcraft were not based on... 

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