Ergotism

The Salem Witch Trials The Salem witch trials took place between February of 1692 and May of 1693, by the end of the trials hundreds were accused of witchcraft, nineteen were executed and several more died while imprisoned awaiting either trial or execution. Some of the ‘symptoms’ associated with witchcraft could have included fever, contortions due to excessive pain, stress, asthma, guilt, boredom, child abuse, epilepsy, and delusional psychosis. One scientist did research and found that the…

A Medical Explanation for the Salem Witchcraft Occurrences While some people believed that the symptoms of the afflicted were too easily turned off and on, ergot poising could have caused the Salem witchcraft trials because most symptoms resembled ergot poising and the environment in New England had the perfect conditions for ergot to survive. In his historical piece on the witch trials called the Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather said “... I report matters not as an advocate, but as…

Hofmann’s resources involving LSD while investigating chemical and pharmacological properties were primarily of ergot. Ergot is simply a fungus that multiplies on rye and further grains. It additionally is rich in medicinal alkaloids and can provoke ergotism in humans and mammals. Hoffman’s search for a circulatory stimulant thereby made one of the most famous drugs known for its psychological effects.…

Evidently, it was fuelled by religious fear and social instability, but the root cause of it is yet to be confirmed. Whether ergotism from rye or mass hysteria, the impact devastated the community. Aside from the torture and death of countless people, farms were left unattended, families left their homes, and progress was stagnant. This resulted in enormous consequences for Salem…

The United States government has always had an unspoken decree that people accused of breaking the law are “innocent until proven guilty.” This has always been upheld to the best of its ability, but in one example in particular, that “ability” wasn’t what it is today. In Salem 1692, twenty men and women were executed, more than one hundred and fifty people were accused, each individually condemned on account of knowing or participating in the act of illegal Witchcraft. Most of the citizens of…

The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and consisted of prosecutions of women and some men who were thought to have been practicing witchcraft. These women were taken to trial, and if they were convicted of practicing witchcraft, they were violently put to death. With the rising tensions in the colony, The Salem Witch trials of 1692 were caused by curiosity in religious beliefs, young women claiming they were possessed by the devil, and troubles arising among the community. By this point the…

A neutral question is a question posed to a person with data collection by thestions allowing the person to answer in their own words based on the data collected. The speaker is supposed to teach the learner what he or she knows not based on their own views, but by what they actually know as a fact. Even though it seems to be level one curriculum, examining and writing a neutral question is more than just a yes or no question. For being biased on an opinionated question is almost impossible when…

of her symptoms can be some combination of stress, asthma, child abuse, epilepsy, and delusional psychosis. “The symptoms also could have been caused, as Linda Caporael argued in a 1976 article in Science magazine, by a disease called "convulsive ergotism" brought on by ingesting rye--eaten as a cereal and as a common ingredient of bread--infected with ergot.” (The Witchcraft Trials in Salem). Cotton Mather published one book, "Memorable Providences," which describe the suspected witchcraft of…

Witch hunts. Driven by the need to purge their society of evil and sin, merciless government leaders hang supposed evil doers by their necks. The targeting, persecution, and execution of witches has existed for a long time, regardless of whether the victims were actual practitioners of witchcraft or not. The question remains, if these people were not truly mixing concoctions of liquid evil in cauldrons or casting spells on their personal enemies, then why were they chosen to be accused, and…

History can be characterized as a constant repetition of men and woman on an acquisitional search to find prosperousness, power and formatting lies to cope with incomprehensible effects of nature. These same principles did not escape the Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts in the late Seventeenth Century, and these causes of the Salem Witch Trials are indistinctly presented by Arthur Miller through her historic drama, The Crucible. Greed is a dangerous nature and is one of the driving elements…