There are many allegations on how the Salem Witch Trials started. Of course, there will never be a definite answer, but there is a theory that is very convincing. Ergot poisoning. A fungus that infects rye has a byproduct called ergotamine, which is related to Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, or LSD. Linnda Caporael, a psychology major at U.C. Santa Barbara, was told to choose a subject for a paper in her American History class. Her just seeing a production of “The Crucible” she began to write about the witch-hunt. "As I started researching," she remembered, "I had one of those 'ah-ha!' experiences." An author for one of her sources said he remained at a loss to explain the hallucinations of the villagers in Salem. "It was the word 'hallucinations' that made everything click," Caporael said. …show more content…
The victim had suffered from hallucinations, and she believed there might be a connection. Eating bread baked with ergot-contaminated rye can trigger seizures, delusions, and bugs under the skin, vomiting, and hallucinations. Historians were aware that the illness caused by ergot poisoning was the reason for many incidents of mass madness in medieval Europe. Caporael wondered if the similar conditions might have been present in Salem, and they were. Ergot needs warm, moist weather to grow, and those conditions were common in the areas around Salem. Rye was the primary grain grown, so there was quite a lot of it. Linnda also revealed that most of the accusers lived on the west side of the village, where the fields were always marshy, making them a perfect environment for the fungus. The crop harvested in the fall of 1691 would have been baked and eaten during the next winter, when the fits of madness began. However, the next summer was abnormally dry, which could explain the sudden drop in the bewitchments. No ergot, no