Ergot Poisoning and the Salem Witchcraft Trials  Colonies to
ConstituionThis week I was reading through various
interpretations of why and how the Salem Witchcraft Trials
happened. You can read numerous interpretations in this book.
The most interesting and unusual reason for the Salem Witchcraft
trials to me is it the one dealing with ergot poisoning which
causes hallucinations.  Ergot on RyeApparently under certain
weather conditions the ergot fungus grows in rye. The Rye is
used to make bread and that is what people eat and therefore get
ergot poisoning. This was so interesting to me that I looked up
more information about the ergot fungus here.  Here is what I
found:  Ergot is a fungus that effects rye. Ergot poisoning does
indeed cause all sorts of body contortions and twists as well as
hallucinations. Ergot is a derivative of LSD. LSD was first  
invented in 1938 by the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman. He was
actually looking to develop medicines from compounds in ergot.
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