Modern Theories of the Witchcraft in Salem

Abstract

Modern-day scholars have offered a number of separate epidemiology-based theories of the witchcraft episode in Salem Village during 1692, each based primarily on the symptoms—delirium, hallucinations, mania, melancholia, muscle contractions, psychosis, tingling extremities, vertigo and vomiting—that the Village physician reported were exhibited by the young women who were the main accusers before and during the trials. This chapter covers these theories of events leading up to the witch trials—a list of theories including bread poisoning, encephalitis and Lyme disease—also offering, in most cases, a critique of these theories.