View Full Version : Drug info - Ergot & St. Anthonies fire
sublimejenni
09-01-2005, 04:28
How do you take ergot? Where can you get it? I know nothing.
Do not take ergot! It is a precursor, not a usable drug. Unless you want to experience st. anthonies fire. Trust me you don't. Edited by: Alfa
sublimejenni
09-01-2005, 04:46
Okay, im glad that I asked. I feel like an idiot because I know so little about some things. Although, it never hurts to gain information. THANK YOU!
Here are some articles which explain St. Anthonies fire, a horrific side effect of ergot poisoning:
Saint Antony and The Salem Witch Trials
Every school child learns of the unique period in American history known as the Salem witch trials, a brief time of fear and frenzy when three young girls suffered a series of convulsive visions in which they saw the mark of the devil on certain women in the village. During 1692 the town executed 20 innocent women based on the girls' accusations, and ever since there have been investigations to explain such abnormal behavior.
This story begins in fourth century Europe when rye was the staple grain of the poor. At this time epidemics ran through the villages which left in its wake many dead, or others mutilated if they were unfortunate enough to survive. From the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, and even much later, eastern France saw a string of epidemics then called "holy fire" or "hell's fire". This was such a great affliction that the monastic Order of St. Anthony was founded to care for the sufferers of a malady finally named, St. Anthony's Fire.
It is very small, too small to see except with the aid of a microscope. It's a tiny speck of fungus which infects only the grain of rye plants, and does so more often in cold, wet weather. Once the grain is infested it becomes highly toxic. Those unfortunate enough to consume that grain suffer intense burning pains in the limbs from restriction of blood flow, then they quickly become gangrenous and fall off. It also caused spontaneous abortion. Many died of the disease, but others survived horribly mutilated for the rest of their lives. In the year 994 alone, over 40,000 people died of the disease.
Until the end of the sixteenth century the only recourse for sufferers was to make a pilgrimage to the various shrines of St. Anthony where the doors were painted red or flame colored to better mark them for the sick. There the monks bore a blue 'T' on their robes, which many believed represented the crutch since those who lost one or both legs would forever use it to walk.
Midwives knew of the powerful effects of ergot long before it was officially "discovered" by medicine as the cause of St. Antony's fire. It was not uncommon to administer five to nine grains to women in difficult labor in order to speed the contractions, and reduce postpartum bleeding. Dosages were just enough to cause the uterus to contract, but they knew that larger doses caused abortion and administered it to women who suffered unwanted pregnancy. Here we see how vital dosage is to herbal healing because a little too much ergot and St. Anthony is likely to pay a visit. Today ergot is still used in medicine to control vascular dilation in migraine and other similar diseases.
Studies such as that of F.J. Bove in The Story of Ergot and Caporael's Ergotism: the satan loosed in Salem? suggests that the visions of the Salem girls and the frenzied response of others in the famous witch hunts were likely to have been caused by ergot tainted rye in the colony. There were probably no witches to speak of, and when the supply of infected grain ran out, the people returned to their more passive nature. Unfortunately, while poisoned they had killed off many herbal healers and midwives, and with them went the accumulated medical knowledge so vital to life in the raw American wilderness.
In the last two centuries St. Antony's Fire has cropped up again, but usually associated with famines during which tainted food was eaten just to survive, as was the case in the Russian epidemic of 1888. Although we need not fear ergot in our food supply today, it is a good idea to inspect organically grown rolled or whole rye berries before you eat them. Fungicides are used to control ergot in commercially grown rye crops so these are more reliable. Herbal medicine is a fascinating subject but let's not forget the vast family of fungi which includes such potent drugs such as fly argaric mushrooms. And from the medieval midwives we are bequeathed a very powerful drug, ergot, which causes firey pain while offering women vital choices and aid in that miracle that is childbirth.
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Outbreak of Ergotism (857 A.D.) and Holy Fire Epidemic (1039)
In 857 A. D. the first serious outbreak of ergotism was recorded in the Rhine Valley. It struck the peasants and killed thousands of people. It was during this time it was called Holy Fire because of the buring sensations at the extremities from gangrenous ergotism. The cause of Holy Fire was unknown but the symptoms experienced by the people was documented. The people suffered from swollen blisters, rotting flesh, and loss of limbs.
While ergotism still occured over the following years it did bring some good with it. In 1039 during another epidemic of Holy Fire, a man named Gaston de la Valloire who was wealthy and felt pity for the victims built a hospital near Vienne. It was dedicated to the relief of suffers and to the memory of St. Anthony. Holy Fire was also called St. Anthony's Fire from this point on. Eventually over 370 hospitals would be built in memory of St. Anthony to care for the victims of Holy Fire. The cause of ergotism was still unknown.
Picture is St. Anthony--Patron Saint of Ergotism (from Plant Diseases: Their Biology and Social Impact)
Thullier and Discoveries in Ergotism (1670)
In 1670, a French physician by the name of Dr. Thuillier began to make some important observations concerning Holy Fire. He determined that ergotism was not an infectious disease. He noted that it occurred in the rural areas of the poor rather than in the highly populated, unsanitary urban areas. Also he noted that in some cases only one member of a family would be ill or that an entire family suffering from Holy Fire lived next to completely well families. Children and feeble appeared to be the most susceptible and nursing mothers mights see the symptoms in their babies. However the strangest observation he made was that wealth appeared to determine one susceptibility to ergotism. He became determined in finding the cause for ergotism. He noted that the country environment nor drinking water (city and country folks used the same source) could not be the source. He determined the source to be food. He noted that when he visited the sick in rural areas meals consisted of either pork or beans and always rye bread. City folks tended to eat rich beef, poultry, truffles and white bread.
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Thuillier noticed in a field of rye the ergot, or cockspurs (picture at right) as the farmers called them, growing in place of grain on some heads of rye. Farmers considered these cockspurs to be harmless. Thuillier knew that alchemist often used the ergots in their potions to hasten childbirth. So small doses seemed to be okay, but what about the large doses found in the heavy loaf of rye bread always found on the tables. The peasants were eating the ergot rye flour in the form of bread. Thuillier also noticed that in years that the cockspurs filled the rye heads that Holy Fire raged through the country side and hundreds died. Finally proof. But as always it was not enough and the farmers did not believe him.</TD>
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Salem Witch Trials (1692)
With the cause of Holy Fire unknown many theories concerning the Salem Witch trials of 1692 have been developed. It has been theorized that the Salem Witch trials occurred due because of ergotism. Some have suggested that the victims of these trials were actually suffering from ergotism. According to historian Mary Matossian in her book Poisons of the Past, she noted symptoms of the people to be sensations of prickling or ants crawling on the skin, distortions of the face, paralysis, hallucinations, convulsive seizures, and dementia. All these symptoms were consistent with those suffering from ergotism. (Want to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials check out these links.........Salem Witch Museum (http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/) and Salem Witch Trials--Chronology (http://www.salemweb.com/memorial/)) Picture at left is the June 10, 1692 hanging of Bridgette Bishop from Famous American Trials, Salem Witchcraft Trials 1692 (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm)</TD>
Peter The Great (1722)
Ergotism had other affects on history as well. Peter the Great, in 1722, attempted to make Russia the greatest nation of the world by taking Constantinople from the Turks. He wanted to drive the Turks back to Asia. So he led his Cossacks into the great marshalling area at Astrkhan on the delta of the Volga. The Cossack calvary like all armies of this time lived off the land. So when the serfs of the Volga delta came in with their carts loaded with rye (hay and grains) for the horses and rye flour for the men, the cossacks were allowed to eat. But then one night in August, the first horse went down with blind staggers. Later at dawn, the shriek of a man in agony tore through the camp. By noon a hundred horses were down, and by evening of the next day scores of soldiers were in agony. It was Holy Fire. That Autum 20,000 people died, and Russia's military power weakened. So again the question arises as to what is ergotsim? What causes it to occur? Since the people did not understand the cause of ergotism, they had more difficulty finding a cure for ergotism. (Information from: Famine on the wind; man's battle against plant disease, by G. L. Carefoot and E. R. Sprott.)
Tulanse Proves Thuilliers Work to be Right (1853)
Finally in 1853, Louis Rene Tulanse finally proved what Thuillier had figured out two hundred years earlier. He studied growing rye and the flowers and performed numerous experiments. He discovered that the rye was not the problem, but rather a fungal parasite was the problem. The fungus, Claviceps purpurea, attacks grains and grasses. Claviceps means "club-headed" and purpurea means purple, which describes the ergots or cockspurs. The ergots were actually the overwintering structure of the fungus. These ergots are not to be eaten by human or animals because they contain poisonous alkaloids. This species of fungus was the original source of LSD. The alkaloids when ingested cause many health problems. Symptoms often exhibited by the afflicted are nervous dysfunction (convulsions), trembling and shaking, wryneck (fixed twisting of the neck), muscle spasms, confusion, delusion, hallucinations, and loss of extremities. Animals exhibit similar symptoms. Today the alkaloids discovered in the ergot are being used to treat ailments. Ergotamine is used to treat headaches, especially migraines. Ergonovine is used to control hemorrhage following childbirth.
Ergotism, the Saga Continues.... (20th Century)
There have been occasions in the 20th century where outbreaks occur. In 1926-27, Russian had 10,000 reported cases, England reported 200 cases in 1927, and the last reported cases was 1951 in Provence, France. Dr. Jean Vieu, of Pont-St.-Esprit in Provence, France, visited a patient exhibited symptoms similar to acute appendicitis. However the patient suffered from symptoms other than the intense pain in the lower abdomen, the patient also had a lowgrade fever, cold fingertips, and hallucinations. Three days later the hospitals were full and 70 houses had been turned into emergency wards. The fist victim of this strange illness that the doctors had determined to be food poisoning died in agonizing convulsions. Terror spread through the city as stories spread about an eleven year old attempted to strangle his mother. The doctors persuaded the mayor to institute a house-to-house search for anything that might yield a clue as to the cause. The investigation uncovered that all the people had eaten bread from the same bakery. Samples of the bread from the homes and from the bakery were sent to Marseillis for analysis. Twenty poisonous alkaloids were found in the bread, and the source of these alkaloids was a fungus that produces ergot in rye. It would a few weeks later before the entire mystery was figured out. A miller 300 kilometers away, had ground the flour. An unscrupulous farmer had sold his ergot infected rye to a baker who had it ground into flour. All three men knew the rye was poisonous but they did not want to pay the twenty francs per kilo sales tax. The result was that over 200 hundred suffered from severe ergotism, 32 went insane, and 4 died.
Edited by: Alfa
St. Anthony's Fire -- Ergotism
PARIS, October, 2000 -- This reporter had the good fortune recently to visit the French village of Lavardin (population 200 plus or minus a few souls) in the valley of the little Loir River. Forty minutes from Paris by the bullet TGV train, this tiny village has a church, Saint Jenest, that dates from the 12th century. The church is in a simple romanesque style and contains extraordinary frescoes and stone carvings. One of the frescoes depicts St. Anthony and sufferers from St. Anthony's fire.
The History of Saint Anthony's Fire
On 15 August 1151 one in twenty of the 4000 inhabitants of another village in France called Pont Saint Esprit (Bridge of the Holy Spirit) went mad. They had hallucinations, writhed in agony in their beds, vomited, ran crazily in the streets and suffered terrible burning sensations in their limbs.
The madness was quickly diagnosed. They were suffering from St Anthony's Fire, a dreaded illness that was common in the Middle Ages. The cause was poisoning from a fungus (ergot) that grows on rye grass. The fungus contaminated the rye flour used in making bread.
Ergot contains a chemical that makes the sufferers go berserk and causes gangrene of the hands and feet due to constriction of blood supply to the extremities. If it is not treated (and this was not possible in the Middle Ages), victims had the sensation of being burned at the stake, before their fingers, toes, hands and feet dropped off.
A Masterpiece Born of Saint Anthony's Fire
Matthias Grünewald's 16th-century Isenheim Altarpiece glorified suffering and offered comfort to those afflicted with a dread disease.
In the French town of Colmar near the German border sits one of the wonders of Western art -- a 16th-century polyptych (multipanelled altarpiece) created by an enigmatic figure for a hospital that treated victims of Saint Anthony's fire. The Isenheim Altarpiece, regarded as a "sublime artistic creation," and its creator, Matthias Grünewald, have fascinated artists and scholars since the work was first moved to Colmar some 200 years ago.
Commissioned by Antonite monks, the altarpiece was created between 1512 and 1516 for the chapel of a hospital at the order's monastery in Isenheim, 15 miles south of Colmar. There, the monks ministered to patients suffering from the painful and often fatal disease, named (as were the monks themselves) for a figure who himself had known great suffering. The man chosen to execute the commission was a German artist and engineer - contemporary of Albrecht Dürer's - whose very name long eluded scholars. A biographer declared him Matthias Grünewald in 1675, and since then - though it has subsequently been determined that his name was either Mathis Godhardt or Mathis Godhardt Neithardt - scholars have continued the tradition of using the misnomer.
The altarpiece Grünewald created is a many-faceted collection of disturbing and uplifting images that unfold as the wings open to reveal a series of scenes. As in most Christian art, the Savior plays a central role, appearing in a terrifying Crucifixion panel and a powerful Resurrection. But in this work, the tortured Saint Anthony is also prominently featured. The two figures seem meant to give hope and consolation to the ill, conveying the message that pain, also, brings one close to God.
Who was Saint Anthony?
Saint Anthony (c.251-356) of Egypt was a hermit and one of the earliest monks. He is considered the founder and father of organized Christian monasticism. His rule represented one of the first attempts to codify guidelines for monastic living.
Anthony began to practice an ascetic life at the age of 20 and after 15 years withdrew for absolute solitude to a mountain by the Nile called Pispir (now Dayr al-Maymun), where he lived from about 286 to 305. During the course of this retreat, he began his legendary combat against the devil, withstanding a series of temptations famous in Christian theology and iconography. In about 305 he emerged from his retreat to instruct and organize the monastic life of the hermits who imitated him and who had established themselves nearby. When Christian persecution ended after the Edict of Milan, he moved to a mountain in the Eastern Desert, between the Nile and the Red Sea, where the monastery Dayr Mari Antonios still stands. Here he remained, receiving visitors and, on occasion, crossing the desert to Pispir. He ventured twice to Alexandria, the last time (c. 350) to preach against Arianism, a heretical doctrine teaching that Christ the Son is not of the same substance as God the Father.
The early monks who followed Anthony into the desert considered themselves the vanguard of God's army, and, by fasting and performing other ascetic practices, they attempted to attain the same state of spiritual purity and freedom from temptation that they saw realized in Anthony. Anthony's spiritual combats with what he envisioned as the forces of evil made his life one long struggle against the devil.
The devil's assault on Anthony took the form of visions, either seductive or horrible, experienced by the saint. (This is according to St. Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria.) For example, at times, the devil appeared to Anthony in the guise of a monk bringing bread during his fasts, or in the form of wild beasts, women, or soldiers, sometimes beating the saint and leaving him in a deathly state. Anthony endured many such attacks, and those who witnessed them were convinced they were real. Every vision conjured up by Satan was repelled by Anthony's fervid prayer and penitential acts. So exotic were the visions and so steadfast was Anthony's endurance that the subject of his temptations has often been used in literature and art, notably in the paintings not only Matthias Grünewald, as mentionned, but also of many other artists ranging from Hiëronymus Bosch and Max Ernst.
From these psychic struggles Anthony emerged as the sane and sensible father of Christian monasticism. The rule that bears his name was compiled from writings and discourses attributed to him in the Life of St. Anthony and the Apophthegmata patrum and was still observed in the 20th century by a number of Coptic and Armenian monks.
Anthony's popularity as a saint reached its height in the Middle Ages. The Order of Hospitallers of St. Anthony was founded near Grenoble, France (c. 1100). This institution became a pilgrimage center for persons suffering from the disease known as St. Anthony's fire (ergotism).
ErgotismErgot contains ergotamine. In moderate doses, ergotamine causes the contraction of smooth muscle fibers, such as those in small arteries. Ergotamine has been used to control hemorrhage (bleeding) and to promote contraction of the uterus during childbirth. It is also used to treat migraine (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=14891#) headaches (its major use today).
In large doses, ergotamine paralyzes the motor nerve endings of the sympathetic nervous system. The disease ergotism (St. Anthony's fire) is caused by excessive intake of ergot. This can occur by the overuse of the drug or by eating baked goods made with contaminated flour, as happened in the Middle Ages. (Ergotism also can affect cattle, by their eating ergot-infected grain and grass).
Acute and chronic ergotism are characterized by mental disorientation, convulsions, muscle cramps, and dry gangrene of the extremities.
A psychoactive drug, lysergic acid diethylamide, best known as LSD, is chemically related to ergotamine.
Micklemouse
09-01-2005, 17:49
St Anthony's Fire is the gangrenous form of ergotism, which is what you get if you eat ergot, and it's not much fun by all accounts. Ergot alkaloids massively constrict blood vessels, leading to initially prickling sensations and muscular pain, which intensifies to the point that all sensation is lost. The skin becomes jaundiced, with maybe a red or violet tint, before the affected areas turn gangrenous and fall off. Not what you need.
The second form of ergotism was known as bewitchment, and this is the trippy one. It usually starts with itching, as if ants were crawling over you, accompanied by nightmarish hallucinations(people described demons sitting on their chest and lurking in the room, pricking them with pins and branding with hot irons). Then follows intense cramps, suffocation, spasms and convulsions. Finally the body would curl into a ball and lock, or flex backwards, often breaking the spine - similar to tetanus or strychnine poisoning (could this be where that li'l myth comes from perhaps?). Onset to death only takes a couple of hours, and the survival rate was pretty slim.
Ergotism has been recorded for over 1000 years, but was particularly rife between the 14th and 17th centuries in northern Europe and later in N.E. America, where rye was the staple crop. This period of time was particularly violent and paranoid, with a lot of wars,religious fervour, poverty and disease kicking about. It was also very wet. Ergot is a mould exclusive to rye grain, being a mould it loves the damp, and as it grows it takes on the shape of the grain it grows on, the only thing marking it out being the mould is black, making it virtually impossible to isolate in a harvest or grain store, which were generally communal, and catered for humans and livestock alike. Bear in mind that people ate a lot of bread, and not much else, and ergotism also affects livestock.
Because of the nature of both the times and the ergot mould the convulsive form of ergotism became known as 'bewitchment'. When people are scared and don't know what's going on they look for scapegoats, and in this case they went for what were percieved as witches. This could be anyone from the local healer to the slightly dotty old(or young!) woman who lives with her cat to the bloke you had an argument with last year to a pig who looked at you funny. It really didn't matter so long as a reason is found for what's going on, and something is seen to be done about it. The combination of ergotism, religious paranoia and the rise of the medical profession is possibly responsible for most of northern Europes old knowledge and lore being lost, especially when it comes to healing and spirituality. The Church and the medics, despite close links, were at this time involved in something of a power struggle, but both had the common agenda of believing they were the one true way, and all other knowledge must be suppressed, at any cost. In this case the cost was tens of thousands of innocent people (and animals!) and the decimation of a culture. Needless to say the majority of people to die in the Burning Times were women (another common feature between the Church and the medics was a rabid mysoginy!).
The most renowned of the trials for bewitchment was at Salem in Massachusutts in 1692, following a particularly wet growing and harvest season. 250 people were arrested and 19 executed ( one by being pressed to death!), due to ignorance, paranoia and a fungus. And we think we've got problems!
Communities that ate a dairy rich diet seemed much less affected by ergotism - it's since been found that dairy products offer some protection against the poison, although not against witch hunts unfortunately.
Ergotism still pops up every now and again - it was still quite common in Russia until the mid 20th century, and I can remember a couple of cases in France not that long ago. Ergot itself has found a few medical uses too - it's used to staunch the flow of blood in childbirth, and to treat migraines (one of the side effects of the med being...Hallucinations!). The fungus itself, however, is best left alone!
Micklemouse
09-01-2005, 17:58
Don't you just hate it when someone does that? Great articles - nice one Alfa! http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/smileys/smiley32.gif
Sorry http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/smileys/smiley4.gif
Okay ppl, thanks for the information..
jatzstoned
24-01-2005, 04:50
omg! i think ergot was what my weed was laced with that time, cuz i got really warm and prickly sensations all over
ChemicallyBound
24-01-2005, 13:13
ergot would be completely decomposed by heat, you can't smoke it
enquirewithin
14-02-2005, 04:15
Fascinating stuff! I would rather not try it though!
helikophis
02-12-2008, 23:06
I know this is an old thread, but I recently came across an article with some interesting speculation on the relationship between ergotism and 17th century European witchcraft. I saw an article posted here about the Salem witches, but I don't think this one has been posted yet. Some interesting info in the article, unfortunately a lot of the references are German.