Transcript Ergotism and witchcraft - WWW.PHARMGUSE.NET

Ergotism and witchcraft
Key events in Seventeenth Century colonial
America:
1. the founding of Jamestown
2. the voyage of the Pilgrims
3. the first Thanksgiving
4. the establishment of slavery just to name a
few.
Another occurrence stands out among the others
as a brutal and backward looking mistake in the
course of American history--the Salem witch
trials of 1692.
Ergotism and witchcraft
In medieval times, there were two types of
witches:
1. Malefic—a witch that caused misfortunes
• causing beer or cheese to spoil,
• the family cow to dry up
• the death of babies.
2. Theological—witches that had made a
covenant with the Devil to acquire their
magical powers.
• common for these types of witches to be marked
with a “witches mark” such as an extra nipple from
which familiars of the Devil could nurse.
Ergotism and witchcraft
Witchcraft was also a legal concept.
• There were laws in most places at that time against
“Acts of Conjuracions, Inchantments and
Witchcraftes.”
• After 1604 the sentence was death, unlike some of
the earlier statues where more lenient punishment
could have been granted.
Salem witchcraft affair of 1692
the worst outbreak of witch persecution in America
It affected not only Salem Village but eight other communities of
Essex County, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
• It began in the kitchen of the Reverend Samuel Parris, in
Salem Village, Massachusetts:
- a group of young girls and a slave from the Caribbean
named Tituba, were trying to determine what their future
husbands would be like.
- Utilizing a primitive crystal ball, the girls saw something
that terrified them "a specter in the likeness of a coffin.”
- Soon the girls began to experience “odd postures,”
“foolish, ridiculous speeches,” “distempers,” and “fits,
they began blasphemous screaming, had convulsive
seizures and were in trance-like states.”
- While at first Parris and others sought medical
explanations, they soon determined the girls were under
the spells of witches.
Salem witchcraft affair of 1692
to determine who had bewitched them, a
witch cake was baked with the infected
girls urine.
• Consumption of such a cake would reveal to the girls
who had bewitched them.
• After consuming the cake, pressure was placed on the
girls to reveal the names of the witches, which they did.
• The girls initially gave up three names, Tituba, Sarah
Good and Sarah Osbourne.
• While the others denied the charges, Tituba soon
confessed, and the women were locked up.
• the girl’s fits did not stop. Sarah Good was hanged for
witchcraft and Sarah Osbourne died in Prison.
Salem witchcraft affair of 1692
As the spring went on, more people became
afflicted, and more people were accused of
witchcraft.
- The Salem jail began to fill with witches and the social
status of the witches began to increase.
- With the growing number of prisoners, the accusations
began to move out of Salem and into surrounding
communities. It was no longer a local affair.
- The trials dragged on throughout the summer and when
they finally ended in September, due to the direct
intervention of several Massachusetts ministers, there had
been 141 accusations and twenty people were executed.
- Part of the reason that the trials were eventually stopped
was that the accusers began to accuse people whose status
and piety was so firmly established that people no longer
believed them.
Historical detectives
This has been the subject of several of books
The problem has been approached from a variety
of disciplines and many explanations were
provided for the cause.
• 1. The teenage girls in Salem Village were feigning
their symptoms
• 2. The bewitched were suffering from hysteria
Background
Typical witches in Salem were:
1. Doctors or herbalists who were trying to help
the victims.
2. Middle aged, women
3. Of humble social status
4. Either married or widowed,
5. And often somewhat less fecund than other
women.
6. Most had disagreeable or self-assertive
personalities
Background
7. Many also owned property or stood to own
property,
• was against the laws that clearly specified male
inheritance of property.
• There were many conflicts between sons who
believed that the real property of their deceased
fathers was theirs, and widows who held that
property (or whose new husbands held it
• it was the cause of a great deal of resentment.
Typical victims in Salem
• The victims in Essex County were mainly children
and teenagers.
Witches in Salam
Witches in Salam
Background
Pattern of Symptoms
• The patterns of symptoms was distributed in
a nonrandom way in space and time.
• Ultimately twenty people were killed in
Salem,
• over ten thousand people were executed for
witchcraft in Europe in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth centuries.
Geography of the trials
In Scotland
witch persecution was concentrated in the
northeast, along the coast—the country’s main
rye-growing area.
Early Modern Europe
most trials were concentrated in:
• alpine areas of France and central Europe
• in the Rhine Valley.
• In all these areas rye was the staple cereal.
Witch trials in Scotland
Witch trials in western Europe
Geography of the trials
southern France
• In 944 AD in 40,000 people died of ergotism.
• The absence of persecution is significant.
Ireland
• There were few witch trials in Ireland.
• The Irish at this time consumed mainly dairy
products, potatoes and oats, which may explain why
they were not very susceptible to “bewitchment.”
Background
Food prices were indicative
• The higher the rye prices the more witch persecution
trials were held.
Climate was indicative
• The colder the spring and summer temperatures, the
more witch persecution trials were held.
Salem witch trials
Background
Outbreaks of witchcraft were often accompanied
by central nervous system symptoms:
- tremors,
- anesthesias
- paresthesias (sensations of pricking, biting, ants crawling
on the skin)
- distortions of the face and eyes
- paralysis
- spasms
- convulsive seizures
- muscle contractions
- Halucinations
- manias
- panics
- depressions
Background
There were also a significant number of gangrene
cases and complaints of reproductive
dysfunction, especially agalactia (inability of a
nursing mother to produce enough milk).
Animals behaved wildly and made strange noises.
Cows had agalactia.
Not every victim of “bewitchment” had all the
symptoms, but most had abnormal experiences
and behaved in abnormal ways.
Background
1670
• a French physician, Dr. Thuillier put forth
the concept that it was not an infectious
disease, but one that was due to the
consumption of rye infected with ergot that
was responsible for the outbreaks of St.
Anthony’s Fire.
• In 1976 psychologist Linda Caporael
proposed that those who displayed
symptoms of bewitchment in 1692 were
actually suffering from ergotism.
Ergot and ergotism
Is a disease of cereals, especially rye (Secale sp.)
and occasionally other grasses caused by the
fungus Claviceps purpurea.
• When ingested by humans or animals in sufficient
quantity, ergot produces a disease called “ergotism”
which has in serious cases, two variants:
- 1. convulsive--convulsive ergotism might better be
labeled “dystonic ergotism”. It is characterized by
nervous dysfunction, such as writhing, tremors, and wry
neck, which in the past were frequently reported as
“convulsions” or “fits. ”
- 2. gangrenous--victims of gangrenous ergotism may lose
fingers, toes, and limbs to dry gangrene, caused by a
vasoconstrictive chemical (such as the alkaloid
ergotamine) produced by the ergot fungus.
Claviceps purpurea
Claviceps purpurea
Symptoms of ergotism
Cardiovascular system
• constriction of arteries and veins
• rapid, weak pulse
• precordial distress or pain
• muscle pain
• skin cold
• weakness, lameness
• gangrene
• cardiac arrest
Symptoms of ergotism
Motor control
• tremors, spasms, writhing
• wry neck
• eyes awry
• loss of speech
• muscular paralysis
• renal spasm
• permanent constrictures
Symptoms of ergotism
Central nervous system
• headache
• dizziness
• depression
• confusion
• drowsiness, unconsciousness
• panic
• hallucinations
• delusions, psychosis
Symptoms of ergotism
Gastrointestinal system
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
Symptoms of ergotism
Senses
• unquenchable thirst
• depressed or ravenous appetite
• sensations of heat (fever) or cold (chills)
• blindness
• deafness
• numbness
• feeling of being pinched, choked, suffocated
Symptoms of ergotism
Skin
• tingling and itching (formication)
• jaundice
• redness
• swelling
• blistering
Symptoms of ergotism
Reproductive system
• fertility suppression
• abortion, stillbirth
• agalactia (inability to produce milk)
• poisoning of mother’s milk
• False convulsions
Symptoms of ergotism
It is now known that ergot alkaloids do not
produce true convulsions, in which
consciousness is lost
• some ergot alkaloids interfere with the activity of
dopamine in the body
• causing muscle spasms as well as confusion
delusions and hallucinations.
Psychosis
• Ergot might also produce a temporary or permanent
psychosis.
Symptoms of ergotism
Poisoned mother’s milk
• Some ergot alkaloids can pass through the
mother’s milk and poison the nursing infant
who is especially vulnerable.
• If lactating domestic animals in a community
are also affected, there may be no alternative
source of nutrition for human infants.
Witchcraft and ergotism
Symptoms of bewitchment in Massachusetts
• The victims did not have true convulsions because
they did not lose consciousness (victims of
convulsive ergotism writhe and have spasms but do
not lose consciousness.
• 24/30 victims of bewitchment in 1692 suffered from
“fits” and the sensations of being pinched, pricked
or bitten, all of which are common symptoms of
ergotism.
• Temporary blindness, deafness, and speechlessness,
burning sensations, visions and the sensation flying
through the air (out of body).
Witchcraft and ergotism
• Three girls said they felt as if they were being torn
to pieces and all their bones were being pulled out of
joint.
• Some victims reported feeling sick to the stomach or
weak, sensing a burning in the fingers, swelling and
pain in half of the right hand and part o the face, and
being lame.
Symptoms of ergotism
Epidemics of gangrenous necrosis of the
extremities and central nervous abberations
swept through the populations of Europe from
the ninth through the eighteenth centuries as a
result of incorporating ergot-contaminated flour
into bread.
Medical use of ergot in obstetrics began in China
5000 years ago and reportedly was prescribed
by Hippocrates (ca. 400 B.C.)
Ergot alkaloids
Among the known ergot alkaloids with
hallucinogenic properties are:
1. Ergine
2. Ergonovine
3. lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide.
• It is relatively easy to extract lysergic acid
diethylamide (LSD) from lysergic acid, which is the
basic ergot alkaloid.
• through the action of other fungi, LSD may appear
in natural ergot.
Rye and ergotism
ergotism began with the cultivation of
Secale cereale (Rye)
• it is far more common on that host,
• but Claviceps purpurea can infect other grains as well.
• Rye was a weed grain and occurred wherever wheat was
cultivated.
• Often it became the dominant plant when wheat fields
were abandoned.
• wherever civilization became established, Rye would
follow it there.
• It was not cultivated for food until some time in the early
Middle Ages (around the 5th Century), in what is now
eastern Europe and western Russia.
Rye cultivation England and Wales
Alkaloid conc. in Russia
St. Anthony’s Fire
The symptoms (but not the cause of the
symptoms) were well documented during the
Middle Ages.
• It was at this time that it came to be called Holy Fire
and later St. Anthony’s Fire.
• Holy Fire because it caused burning sensations at
the extremities from gangrenous ergotism,
• St. Anthony’s fire because hospitals were set up,
which were dedicated to Saint Anthony, to take care
of patients with the disease.
St. Anthony
Geography of the ergotism
Epidemic-like outbreaks of ergot poisoning have been
recorded in most European countries and Russia.
France
• many waves of ergotism throughout history.
• Between 800-900AD the Holy Roman Empire formed by
Pope Leo III was one of the areas affected.
- The area was populated by the Franks
- during this time, the Vikings invaded the Holy Roman Empire.
Because of their superior size and fighting ability they easily
defeated the Franks who lived along the coastal regions.
- Eventually the Holy Roman Empire was split into West Franks
(France) and East Franks (Germany).
- By 911 the Vikings hold on the northwest coast of France was
complete and the king of France ceded to them what would
become Normandy.
• Through it all the Vikings were unaffected by the ergotism
because Rye was not a staple food for them.
Current uses for ergot alkaloids
Dihydroergotoxine (Ergoloid Mesylate)-• increases brain metabolism and cerebral brain flow.
• Used in age related mental capacity decline.
Ergonovine maleate-• when used after placental delivery, ergonovine
increases the strength, duration and frequency of
uterine contractions and decreases uterine bleeding.
• Used in the prevention and treatment of postpartum
and postabortal hemorrhage.
Current uses for ergot alkaloids
Ergotamine derivatives-• to prevent or abort vascular headaches such as
migraine, migraine variant and cluster headache
• suppress fertility or stop lactation.
LSD--treatment of certain mental disorders.
• The demand is so great that fields of Rye are now
grown by pharmaceutical companies that are
purposely infected with Claviceps purpurea in order
to harvest the alkaloids.
Toxicity of ergots
Grain containing more than 0.3 percent by weight
of the grain may not be legally sold and milled
for flour and human consumption.
It is also costly and quite often difficult to
remove enough sclerotia to meet the legal
standards, particularly in poorer countries, and
the remaining traces are often toxic to livestock.
LSD
Albert Hofmann-inventor of LSD at Sandoz labs
in Switzerland–1930’s
• Isolated an alkaloid called ergotoxine, which was
thought not to be pure, but was really a mixture.
• Isolated Lysergic acid as one of the base alkaloids.
• He began to do a series of experiments where he
combined lysergic acid with a variety of amines to
make pharmaceutically important lysergic acid
compounds.
- The first was lysergic acid + prolamine; the result was
ergonovine was a very useful uterotonic- hemostatic
compound valuable in obstetrics.
- Lysergic acid + butanolamine; the result was the
compound with the trade name Methergine which today is
the leading medicine for obstetrics.
LSD
1938–He produced the twenty-fifth substance in
this series of lysergic acid derivatives:
• lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25, Lyserg-saurediathylamid).
- This compound, from its structure, was planned as a
circulatory and respiratory stimulant.
- In tests it was found that a strong effect on the uterus was
established that amounted to 70% of ergonovine.
- It was also noted in passing that the experimental animals
became restless during the narcosis.
- LSD-25 aroused no speical interest and testing was
discontinued.
- Usually in the lab this would have been the end of LSD-25
because finding no pharmacological uses it would
normally have been discarded as nothing useful.
LSD
Hofmann did resynthesize more LSD-25 about
five years later –in the process he absorbed
some through his skin
“Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to interrupt my
work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon
and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable
restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home
I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicatedlike condition, characterized by an uninterrupted stream
of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense,
kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this
condition faded away. If LSD-25 had indeed been the
cause of this bizarre experience, it must be a substance
of extraordinary potency.”
LSD
on Monday he began a series of self-experiments
• 16:20: taken 0.25 mg in 10 cc water (tasteless)
• 17:00: Beginning dizziness, feeling of anxiety, visual
distortions, symptoms of paralysis, desire to laugh.
• Here the notes in his laboratory journal cease.
• He then asked his laboratory assistant to escort him
home.
• They went by bicycle, no automobile being available
because of wartime restrictions on their use. On the way
home, his condition began to assume threatening forms.
He recalls everything becoming distorted and having to
work very hard to pump the bicycle up very steep hills to
his house. The road to his house was perfectly level.
LSD
• The dizziness and sensation of fainting became so
strong at times that I could no longer hold myself
erect, and had to lie down on a sofa. My
surroundings had now transformed themselves in
more terrifying ways. Everything in the room spun
around, and the familiar objects and pieces of
furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms.
They were in continuous motion, animated, as if
driven by an inner restlessness. The lady next door,
whom I scarcely recognized, brought me milk - in
the course of the evening I drank more than two
liters. She was no longer Mrs. R., but rather a
malevolent, insidious witch with a colored mask.
LSD
• Even worse than these demonic transformations of the
outer world, were the alterations that I perceived in
myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of my will,
every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the
outer world and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to be
wasted effort. A demon had invaded me, had taken
possession of my body, mind, and soul. I jumped up and
screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then sank
down again and lay helpless on the sofa.
• I was taken to another world, another place, another time.
My body seemed to be without sensation, lifeless,
strange. Was I dying? Was this the transition? At times I
believed myself to be outside my body, and then
perceived clearly, as an outside observer, the complete
tragedy of my situation.
LSD
• By the time the doctor arrived, the climax of my despondent
condition had already passed. My laboratory assistant informed
him about my self-experiment, as I myself was not yet able to
formulate a coherent sentence. He shook his head in perplexity,
after my attempts to describe the mortal danger that threatened
my body. He could detect no abnormal symptoms other than
extremely dilated pupils. Pulse, blood pressure, breathing were
all normal. He saw no reason to prescribe any medication.
Instead he conveyed me to my bed and stood watch over me.
Slowly I came back from a weird, unfamiliar world to
reassuring everyday reality. The horror softened and gave way
to a feeling of good fortune and gratitude, the more normal
perceptions and thoughts returned, and I became more
confident that the danger of insanity was conclusively past.
LSD
• Now, little by little I could begin to enjoy the
unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted
behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images
surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then
closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in
colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves
in constant flux. It was particularly remarkable how every
acoustic perception, such as the sound of a door handle or
a passing automobile, became transformed into optical
perceptions. Every sound generated a vividly changing
image, with its own consistent form and color.
Kapok