The psychotic symptoms of fungal poisoning are well documented. Now we must ask whether these same symptoms match the description we have of symptoms in the past, before dietary change occurred. In summary, in Early Modern Europe witchcraft persecution occurred at a time of widespread impairment of the health of people and animals. Perhaps the weather was to blame. This was a cold century.
Cold winters traumatize rye and increase the risk of ergot alkaloid formation.
Such alkaloids may have caused the symptoms of bewitchment. When the incidence of these symptoms increased, so did the incidence of witchcraft persecution. We today should avoid the mistake made by the witch-burners of long ago by not overlooking a physical cause for events that mystify us. The Salem witchcraft affair of 1692 was peculiar. In terms of the number of people accused and executed, it was the worst outbreak of witch persecution in American history, affecting not only Salem Village but eight other communities of Essex County, Massachusetts, as well as Fairfield County, Connecticut.