Ergot is a
fungus than can explain the occurances of the famous '
plagues of witchcraft' that occurred in
Salem, Mass. in
1892. Apparently, their
rye crops were infected with a poisonous fungus that, when
ingested, caused
hallucinations (of all the
senses), uncontrollable
convulsions, and eventually
death. There has been a similar case in
France in the 1950s, where a
baker unwittingly used a batch of
flour that was made from rye infected with ergot. About 200 people in the small
French town were affected, and (if I remember correctly) 17 people died. There was even
video footage taken of the
fungus' effects, which showed EXACTLY those symptoms described in the
Salem journals that described the incident.
It was also found that ergot
infections of
staple crops could explain '
witch hunts' dating back to the
middle ages. Weather conditions at the time were found
to be conductive of ergot infection throughout areas where
witch hangings took place. These areas were found to be near primary
rye-growing areas of the
time.
Peasants were most affected, as their poor diets consisted mostly of
food derived from that
grain.
More interestingly, such behaviour of 'witch accusations' traces back to a
petrified man found in a
peat bog whose
age has been estimated at approximately 2000 years. The man's
stomach contents were found to contain large amounts of ergot, which was found to
have been absorbed into his
bloodstream. The man suffered a clearly
brutal death, as his
skull was cracked and his
throat cut
ear to ear. The discovery of ergot in his stomach would explain his brutal death, as the
mystics and
druids at the time would have thought him '
possessed'
by
demons and hunted him down.
Ergot is same
fungus from which D-
lysergic acid diethylamide (
LSD) was originally
derived. There are numerous other
chemical constituents of the fungus (notably
ergotamine) that cause convulsions of
smooth muscle (like that in
arteries) primarily in the
cranial region, which would account for the uncontrollable convulsions as the
brain was starved of
oxygen.
It's also interesting to note that people called
in a
bishop to
exorcise the site of the bakery where the poisoned
bread made from the infected rye originated in that town in
France.