Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and HistoryDid food poisoning cause the Black Plague, the Salem witch-hunts, and other significant events in human history? In this pathbreaking book, historian Mary Kilbourne Matossian argues that epidemics, sporadic outbursts of bizarre behavior, and low fertility and high death rates from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries may have been caused by food poisoning from microfungi in bread, the staple food in Europe and America during this period. "A bold book with a stimulating thesis. Matossian's claims for the role of food poisoning will need to be incorporated into any satisfactory account of past demographic trends."--John Walter, Nature "Matossian's work is innovative and original, modest and reasoned, and opens a door on our general human past that historians have not only ignored, but often did not even know existed."--William Richardson, Environmental History Review "This work demonstrates an impressive variety of cross-national sources. Its broad sweep also reveals the importance of the history of agriculture and food and strengthens the view that the shift from the consumption of mold-poisoned rye bread to the potato significantly contributed to an improvement in the mental and physical health of Europeans and Americans."--Naomi Rogers, Journal of American History "This work is a true botanical-historical tour de force."--Rudolf Schmid, Journal of the International Association of Plant Taxonomy "Intriguing and lucid."--William K. Beatty, Journal of the American Medical Association |
Contents
Frontispiece Family of peasants in seventeenthcentury France | 8 |
Summer temperatures in North America and Europe | 108 |
Location of dwellings of the bewitched in Salem Village | 121 |
Great Awakening or Great Sickening? | 123 |
Topography of the main part of Connecticut | 134 |
Social Control of Mass Psychosis | 145 |
The positive supernatural interpretation | 148 |
Plant Health and Human Health | 155 |
Other editions - View all
Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History Mary Allerton Kilbourne Matossian No preview available - 1989 |
Common terms and phrases
accused alkaloid production areas behavior bewitchment bubonic plague cause central nervous system cereals Claviceps strains climate cold Connecticut convulsions correlated countries crude birth rate crude death rate decline diarrhea diet diphtheria disease disorders E. A. Wrigley eighteenth century England English epidemic ergot alkaloids ergot infection ergot poisoning ergotism epidemics Essex County Europe European evidence explain favorable fertility FIGURE fits flea food poisoning France fungi Fusarium Fusarium toxins gangrenous grain hallucinations harvested incidence increased ingest interpretation January temperature July temperature London maslin mold mycotoxins nineteenth century occurred panic peak peasants percent period physicians plague population growth population history potatoes predictor variable provinces region reported Russia rye bread rye consumption Salem seventeenth spasms staple suffered summer temperature symptoms of ergotism T-2 toxin throat distemper tion trends ulcerous variance victims weather wheat wheat prices winter witch persecution witch trials witchcraft Wrigley and Schofield ΙΟ
Popular passages
Page 184 - Margaret C. Jacob, The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689-1720 (Ithaca, 1976), pp. 135-37. 68 For recent work on Newton, cf. CRS Westfall, The Changing World of the Newtonian Industry', Journal of the History of Ideas 37 (March 1976).