The Truth Behind Halloween Legends - Page 2
© Debbie St. Germain
New Englanders were famous for their vampire stories. Here in Rhode Island, we have our own local legend as well. Tuberculosis is a disease that affected many in the 19th Century. A person who came down with this disease would literally waste away. Because they did not understand how the disease spread, people began to blame the supernatural. They said that anyone who died of tuberculosis would return as a vampire and feed off other family members, who in turn would waste away as well.
Another form of porphyria, called hypertrichosis, causes excessive hair growth, gum degeneration, and neurological disorders. This led to the belief in werewolves. Many geneticists feel this disorder is caused by a gene some still carry from the Stone Age. For some reason, this gene gets turned on and causes a person to grow too much hair. Men who suffer from this disease have to shave several times a day to remove excess hair.
Many myths were created to explain the unexplainable, as in the case of alleged witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of young girls began the famous "witch hunts" when they started acting strangely: making crazy gestures, talking nonsense, and screaming that witches were pinching and biting them. At the time of this event, the people had been eating wheat that is now suspected of having been poisoned by a fungal disease called ergot. The symptoms of ergot poisoning can include nausea, feeling like something is crawling under your skin, muscle twitches, spasms, convulsions, hallucinations, and even death. The effects of poisoning along with mass hysteria is the most likely cause of the Salem witch trials.
In the Middle Ages, women were called witches if they practiced the use of herbal medicines. Midwives would use the root of a mandrake plant to help ease the pain during childbirth. It is now known that mandrake root is a source of scopolamine, a drug that has calming effects and is used for motion sickness. It is not any different then the medicine we use today for headaches, a medicine that comes from the bark of a tree. We know it as aspirin. But in the medieval period, having the ability to change a person's behavior or health with herbs and roots was cause for some to scream "witchcraft."
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