Ergot: Nature's LSD

In February 1692, Elizabeth Parris, the daughter of the village's new minister, fell mysteriously ill. The 10-year-old girl began to exhibit strange behavior -- barking at her father, throwing herself about her room, and screaming of her skin being pinched and stung. After local physician William Griggs was confounded by the girl's symptoms and the failure of the treatments he tried on her, he pronounced that evil was at work on the girl. She was "possessed," and soon other girls in the village followed her into her illness.

Since Puritans believed the devil worked in league with witches, the already suspicious Salem residents began to look at one another. At the center was Tituba, a Barbadian slave who worked for the Reverend Samuel Parris, Elizabeth's father. Tituba and other residents found themselves accused by the girls who were suffering fits and convulsions.

No historian has concluded that it was indeed witchcraft that caused the girls' illness, and there are varying explanations for the supposed possessions. Perhaps most interesting is historian Linda Caporael's claim that it was ergot poisoning that originally created the hysteria.

Miklav/Dreamstime Rye grain is the most common naturally occurring source for the toxic ergot fungus. Is it possible that ergot poisoning started the hysteria?

Ergot is the result of a mold -- toxic and often fatal to humans -- which grows on grain. For centuries, farmers knew of the mold -- which they called cockspur -- but assumed it was harmless [source: Shelton]. Some people believed that the cockspur, which looks like black whole grains, was simply grain cooked by the sun [source: Caporael]. This was not the case, however.

Outbreaks of ergot poisoning have occurred elsewhere in history, the earliest on record being in Germany in A.D. 857. The idea that ergot was causing the ghastly illness called St. Anthony's Fire was suspected as early as 1670 after an investigation by a French physician named Thuillier [source: University of Georgia]. But it wasn't until 1853 that Louis Rene Tulanse proved indubitably that these cockspurs were causing the agonizing death of so many people and animals.

Simply eating bread containing flour made from grain containing ergot can kill a person. Ergot poisoning can manifest in two ways: Gangrenous ergotism involves a burning of the skin, blisters and dry rot of the extremities -- which eventually fall off. The condition usually results in the death of the sufferer.

Convulsive ergotism attacks the central nervous system, causing mania, psychosis, hallucinations, paralysis and prickling sensations. It was these symptoms that reminded Caporael of those exhibited by Elizabeth Parris -- especially the mania.

Accounts written during 1692 describe behavior of the afflicted girls that bears an uncanny resemblance to a hallucinogenic state, and the fungus contains isoergine -- the main ingredient in the drug LSD. Is it possible that Elizabeth Parris and her fellow afflicted had eaten rye and fallen ill with convulsive ergotism?

Read about the arguments for and against the theory of ergot poisoning as an explanation for the Salem witch trials on the next page.