Theor wallcat5/7/2023 Convulsive ergotism causes violent fits, a crawling sensation on the skin, vomiting, choking, and, hallucinations. Furthermore, one of the Puritans’ main staple of their diet was cereal and breads made of the harvested rye. In 1691, during the rye harvest in Salem, these conditions existed. The disease is brought on by ingesting rye grain infected with ergot, a fungus that can invade developing kernels of rye grain, especially under warm and damp conditions. Caporael, a Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, argued that a disease called “convulsive ergotism” might have been to blame. As the witch hysteria spread, there were numerous other young women who claimed to be afflicted.īut, what was the original cause of these so-called “fits”? Modern technology suggests they may have been caused by some combination of stress, asthma, guilt, boredom, child abuse, epilepsy, and delusional psychosis.Īnother theory was first presented in a 1976 article in Science magazine where Dr. Within no time, there were three witches who were accused - Tituba, Reverend Parris’ slave Sarah Good, an impoverished homeless woman and Sarah Osborne, who had defied conventional Puritan society. Other ministers were consulted, who agreed that the only cause could be witchcraft and since the sufferers were believed to be the victims of a crime, the community set out to find the perpetrators. He soon brought in the local doctor William Griggs, who could find no physical cause for the girls’ problems and diagnosed them being afflicted by the “Evil Hand,” commonly known as witchcraft.
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