Salem Witch Trial - Essay Example

The book principally analyses medical explanations of bewitchment, a contentious topic that many writers differ in their explanations. Medical bewitchments were carried out during the Salem Witch Trials since in the present world not many people believe that symptoms of those causing suffering were purely caused by bewitchment. Some researchers, not believing this, decided to research on biological aspects of these symptoms. Modern historians do not give credit to all the research. They cited that the evidence given by the scientists is historically inaccurate and thus not dependable. In this paper, I will discuss two pieces touching on the Salem Witch Trial, compare them, and give my opinion.

In 1989, Mary Matossian wrote Poisons of the Past, in which she clarified a matter that was earlier done by a graduate student who was claiming that hallucinations caused by a girl who had consumed bread made from rye grain was suffering from indigestion. The graduate author claimed that the bread was affected by a fungus (ergot) which resulted in her suffering. Flaws in this hypothesis were found when a journal published by Spannos and Gottlieb performed a wider assessment of the matter. They disagreed with the assertion, claiming that ergot poisoning has more symptoms than those displayed by the affected girl. In addition, it was concluded that if the poison was in the entire supply, then other people in the community should have been affected. Biological symptoms normally stop under the intervention of medical controls. These historians disagreed with the biological evidence (Spanos & Gottlieb).

The evident strength of this hypothesis is that the symptoms can biologically be proven and identified in the lab, unlike the historical evidence. Mary researched that the rye grain was infected with fungus, which was responsible for the indigestion caused by the girl. Scientifically Ergot of the Rye is a plant malady caused by a fungus that was responsible for the ingestion in her stomach. This article has changed my thinking of witchcraft, which I thought was so much traditional but now I do believe in facts because the symptoms alleged can be proven in the laboratories.

In words that moved a nation, there is a village, Salem, in a country known as Essex. This town was made up of farmers who depended on the farm produce for their living. They had their church, the Pariton Church, in which their faith was founded. The church had the belief that it was only god who decided where one was born A group of merchants emerged who lived in Salem town. The Salem town and the Salem village had two economic backgrounds that started being jealous of each other. During one time, a group of adolescent girls fell sick with a certain outlandish disease (Caporael).

The weaknesses of this article are evident in the way that the causes of the events were mental illnesses such as mass hysteria, mass hypnosis, or even delusions. This study was carried out by researchers who scrutinized the cause of the affected adolescent girls. The girls mainly experienced hysteria as their symptoms fit well with the disease. However, this theory is questionable since not everybody has the disease (Beard). This is contradictory because the disease had infected all the girls. For other people in the vicinity of Salem to contract the disease is unlikely; therefore, the theory is weak. Salem inhabitants also wanted to do away with the merchants, and that is why the strange illness that they were not recognized in Salem, hence concluding that the sudden disease was caused by witchcraft. Some accusers were jealous and wanted to take the chattels of the accused and their position. This article is made weak by confessions of some believers like Ann Putnam junior in 1907 who confessed having accused some people of having committed some crime that had no foundations. She claimed that the accusations were made merely out of ignorance.

For example, the merchants were focused on their businesses and earning profits. God was angry with them which is why they were to be punished through a curse. 

Prayers were also conducted by the church in which they based their faith, but it was not fruitful. The two possible solutions were done; hence, the only cause of the illness was witchcraft.

The second article has so much evidence of witchcraft that it makes me believe that witchcraft undoubtedly existed in Salem. Neither could the doctors get the cause of the illness nor could the believers curse the devil out; in my opinion, there was witchcraft.