Ergotism

 ( Mass Poisoning ) 

Ergot alkaloids, the active compounds produced by the ergot fungus, can cause severe vasoconstriction, leading to symptoms like gangrene and convulsions. Additionally, ergot alkaloids can mimic neurotransmitters and hormones in the human body, causing hallucinations and affecting hormonal balance. Chronic exposure to ergot alkaloids has been linked to reproductive issues, such as spontaneous abortions and infertility, due to their action on the pituitary gland.

The toxic ergoline derivatives are found in ergot-based medication (such as methylergometrine, ergotamine or, previously, ergotoxine). The deleterious adverse effect occur either under high dose or when moderate doses interact with potentiators such as erythromycin.

The alkaloids can pass through lactation from mother to child, causing ergotism in infants.

Chemical controls can also be used but are not considered economical, especially in commercial operations, and germination of ergot spores can still occur under favourable conditions even with the use of such controls.

of the disease were identified throughout history, though the references in classical writings are inconclusive. Rye, the main vector (route) for transmitting ergotism, was not grown much around the Mediterranean. When Fuchs separated references to ergotism from erysipelas and other conditions in 1834, he found the earliest reference to ergotism in the Annales Xantenses for the year 857: "a great plague of swollen blisters consumed the people by a loathsome rot, so that their limbs were loosened and fell off before death".

In the Middle Ages the gangrenous poisoning was known as "holy fire" or "Saint Anthony's fire", named after monks of the Order of St. Anthony, who dedicated themselves to treating this ailment. According to Snorri Sturluson in his Heimskringla, King Magnus II of Norway, son of Harald Hardrada, who was the half-brother of Saint King Olaf Haraldsson, died from ergotism shortly after the Battle of Hastings. The 12th-century chronicler Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois recorded the mysterious outbreaks in the Limousin region of France, where the gangrenous form of ergotism was associated with the local Saint Martial. Likewise, an outbreak in Paris around 1129 was reported to be cured by the relics of Saint Genevieve, a miracle commemorated in the "Feast of the Burning Ones." The French physician Tessier observed a huge epidemic in the year 1778 in Sologne (France), during which more than 8000 people died, and was hence persuaded to recommend drainage of fields, compulsory cleaning of grain and replacement of infected grain with potatoes.

Notable epidemics of ergotism occurred into the first half of the 20th century, as in the Italian island of Alicudi, although fewer outbreaks have occurred in modern times owing to rye being carefully monitored in developed countries. However, a severe outbreak of something akin to ergot poisoning occurred in the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951, resulting in nearly 250 deaths.

The hypothesis that ergotism could explain cases of bewitchment has been subject to significant debate and has been criticized by several scholars. Within a year of Caporael's article, historians Nicholas Spanos and Jack Gottlieb refuted the idea in the same journal. In Spanos and Gottlieb's rebuttal to Caporael's article, they concluded that there are several flaws in the explanation. They noted that if ergotism was present in Salem, the symptoms would have occurred by household, not individual. Whole families, and particularly all the young children in a household, would have shown symptoms, but this was not the case. In general, the proportion of children affected was significantly less than in a typical ergotism epidemic. Spanos and Gottlieb also state that most of ergot poisoning's symptoms, like crawling and tingling sensations, vertigo, tinnitus, vomiting, and diarrhea, do not appear in the records of events in Salem. Lastly, they note that convulsive ergotism epidemics only take place in communities suffering from vitamin A deficiencies; they argued that residents of Salem, living in a farming community with ample access to Dairy product, would have had no reason to be deficient in vitamin A. Therefore, an outbreak of ergotism as the cause of the Salem epidemic was unlikely. Historians published in the early 21st century continue to stand by Spanos and Gottlieb's conclusion.

Historian Leon Harrier has argued that only some members of a household might have shown symptoms because they had underlying conditions. Being chemically similar to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ergot would not survive in the acidic environment of a typical human's stomach, especially in properly cooked food. But if some residents of a household were malnourished and had bleeding stomach ulcers, those individuals would have had a heightened risk of absorbing the toxin (even with properly cooked food items) through the stomach lining, offering a direct route to the bloodstream. Only those with these preexisting conditions would have been affected by ingesting contaminated grains, leaving the majority unaffected.

Anthropologist H. Sidky noted that ergotism had been known for centuries before the Salem witch trials and argued that its symptoms would have been recognizable during the time of the Salem witch trials.