Medical explanations of bewitchment
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Medical explanations for symptoms of bewitchment, especially as exhibited during the Salem witch trials but in other witch hunts as well, have emerged because it is not widely believed today that symptoms of those claiming affliction were actually the caused by bewitchment, and so, the reported symptoms have been explored by a variety of researchers for possible biological and psychological origins.
Modern academic historians of witch hunts generally do not give serious credence to medical explanations, citing the cherry-picking of biological symptoms by adherents of various medical theories to make the afflictions seem more consistent with the selected illness, and pointing out that the evidence cited as support for certain symptoms is often historically inaccurate. They believe that the accusers in Salem were motivated by social factors -- jealousy, spite, or a need for attention -- and that the extreme behaviors exhibited were "counterfeit," as contemporary critics of the trials had suspected.
[edit] Ergot Poisoning
A widely-known theory about the cause of the reported afflictions attributes the cause to the ingestion of bread that had been made from rye grain that had been infected by a fungus, Claviceps purpurea, commonly known as ergot. This fungus contains chemicals similar to those used in the synthetic psychedelic drug LSD. Convulsive ergotism causes a variety of symptoms, including nervous dysfunction.
The theory was first widely publicized in 1976, when graduate student Linnda R. Caporael published an article in Science magazine, making the claim that the hallucinations of the afflicted girls could possibly have been the result of ingesting rye bread that had been made with moldy grain. "Ergot of Rye" is a plant disease caused by the fungus Claviceps purpurea. which Caporael claims is consistent with many of the physical symptoms of those alleged to be afflicted by witchcraft.
Within seven months, however, a refutation of this theory was published in the same journal by Spanos and Gottlieb. They performed a wider assessment of the historical records, examining all the symptoms reported by those claiming affliction, among other things, that 1) ergot poisoning has additional symptoms that were not reported by those claiming afflicting, 2) if the poison was in the food supply, symptoms would have occurred on a house-by-house basis not in only certain individuals, and 3) biological symptoms do not start and stop based on external cues, as described by witnesses, nor do biological symptoms start and stop simultaneously across a group of people, also as described by witnesses.
In 1989, Mary Matossian reopened the issue, supporting Caporeal, including putting an image of ergot-infected rye on the cover of her book, Poisons of the Past. Matossian refuted Spanos and Gottlieb, based on evidence from Boyer and Nissenbaum in Salem Possessed that indicated a geographical constraint to the reports of affliction within Salem Village.
- Caporael, Linnda R. "Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?" Science, Vol. 192 (2 April 1976). See: http://web.utk.edu/~kstclair/221/ergotism.html
- Matossian, Mary Kilbourne. Chapter 9, "Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair," pp. 113-122. Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1989. ISBN 978-0300051216
- Sologuk, Sally. "Diseases Can Bewitch Durum Millers," Milling Journal, Second Quarter 2005, pp. 44-45. See: http://www.northern-crops.com/technical/durumdisease.pdf
- Spanos, Nicholas P. & Jack Gottlieb, "Ergotism and the Salem Village witch trials", Science. 1976 December 24;194(4272):1390-4.
Video:
- PBS Secrets of the Dead: "The Witches Curse" - features an on-screen appearance by Linnda Caporeal
[edit] Encephalitis
In 1999, Laurie Winn Carlson offered an alternative medical theory, that those afflicted in Salem who claimed to have been bewitched, suffered from encephalitis lethargica, a disease whose symptoms match some of what was reported in Salem and could have been spread by birds and other animals.
- Carlson, Laurie Winn. A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials. Chicago, Ivan R. Dee, 1999. ISBN 978-1566633093
[edit] Hysteria and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
An event concurrent with the Salem witch trials in New England was King William's War, during which many British colonists in Maine, New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts were under attack, and fear of attack, by the French in Canada and their Wabanaki allies. Several of the "afflicted" accusers in Salem in 1692 were survivors of attacks in Maine, the witnessing of which is consistent with the psychological response of hysteria and Post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Beard, George M. The Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft Excitement of 1692 and its Practical Application to our own Time Stratford, CT: John E. Edwards, 1971 (1882). See copy at Google Books
- Caulfield, Ernest. "Pediatric Aspects of the Salem Witchcraft Tragedy." American Journal of Diseases of Children, vol. 65 (May 1943), pp. 788-802. Reprinted in Witches & Historians: Interpretations of Salem, Marc Mappen, ed. 2nd edition. Kreiger Publishing, Malbar, FL, 1996. ISBN 0-89464-999-X
- Kences, James E. "Some Unexplored Relationships of Essex County Witchcraft to the Indian Wars of 1675 and 1687." Essex Institute Historical Collections, July 1984. Excerpted in The Salem Witch Trials Reader, Frances Hill, ed. DaCapo Press, 2000.
