1692: MYSTERIOUS AFFLICTION OR MEDICAL EPIDEMIC

By: Susan Metzger      

            Witchcraft or was it? Perhaps it was an unrecognized epidemic of encephalitis. In 1692, there was limited medical and scientific knowledge. The physicians that were called in could not find a medical reason for the symptoms that the residents demonstrated such as hallucinations, convulsions and the inability to walk. There were incidents of victims being pinched, pricked and even to go as far as some barking like dogs.               

            In the winter of 1692 residents of the sparsely settled Salem Village began to experience physical as well as mental afflictions. These fits, hallucinations and temporary paralysis could not be explained by the physicians. The physicians concluded with an explanation of being afflicted, under the evil hand, in other words, bewitched – witchcraft.

           Salem’s witchcraft trials are etched into the minds of all with the persecution of the accused witches that extended throughout New England Villages as well as over time from the 1640s to1692. During this time period something unexplained was occurring causing people and domestic animals to behave oddly.

            The Puritans had come to North America in search of a utopian community which revolved around their religious beliefs. It was in the late winter of 1692 that three girls Betty Parris, Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam Jr. took part in activities that was not acceptable behavior for Puritans girls. Dancing and fortune telling headed by none other than the Reverend Parris’ Barbados slave, Tituba. When the Reverend discovered the kind of behavior that was occurring he was shocked, his own daughter had partaken in these activities that were strictly forbidden by Puritan society.

            The Puritan community looked first to their church for spiritual course of action, the villagers looked to the physicians for a medical explanation and when they came back baffled, they concluded the girls were bewitched. The community then turned next to their court system. A special court was put into effect, Oyer and Terminer, the court of hearing and determining. This court had public hearings to question the accused and determine who caused their pain. At these hearings the accusers would enter fits, see visions and even complain of pain inflicted upon their bodies. Was it the devil in disguise? The Puritans believed the devil was as real as God or, was there a medical explanation that the Puritans were unaware of, perhaps encephalitis.

            Encephalitis is one of science’s mysteries. It is an inflammation of the brain, when a virus or bacteria enters the bloodstream resulting in the inflammation of the brain. Symptoms of encephalitis include fever, confusion, hallucination, paralysis, seizures and personality changes.  These symptoms however may appear differently from one individual to the next. Could this be what the Puritans were suffering from?

            According to Laurie Winn Carlson in her book A Fever in Salem, “[s]ymptoms of encephalitis include: … confusion, … paralysis on one side of the body, memory loss, difficulty in speaking, [and] … epileptic seizure.[1] The Reverend John Hale of Beverly had been called upon to Salem Village and attended some of the public hearings of the accused and would later write “These children[s] … arms, necks, and backs turned this way and that way… they  were taken dumb, their mouths stopped…[and] their limbs wracked and tormented.”[2]

            In the winter and the early spring of 1692, several of the Salem Village children were stricken with an unexplainable illnesses, each having different symptoms and degrees of severity visible. The children’s arms, necks and backs turned in opposite directions, their limbs were wracked and tormented, which in scientific terms could be evidence of modern day epileptic seizures.

            These afflicted children also were taken dumb as well as their mouths stopped, which could be compared to confusion, possible memory loss and loss of speech. All of the above mentioned symptoms could be evidence of encephalitis. These symptoms were all present during that cold winter of 1692, unfortunately due to the limited medical knowledge, the physicians were unable to make a diagnosis and therefore, concluded the girls’ behavior must be the work of the devil.

            Had the physicians worked to gain a better medical understanding of the symptoms a more informed medical diagnosis of the situation may have been made. Then Puritan Society would have been able to recognize these symptoms as a medical concern rather than trying to solve these symptoms with religious doctrine. In being guided down the religious path, it led to persecution and execution of twenty innocent victims.  Rather than if a medical course of action was taken, these symptoms could have been be diagnosed and treated.

            This is just one of the many possibilities of the hysteria of 1692. Remember the question is a simple one, what happened in the year 1692 in Salem? However the answer is not.        

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        Selected Bibliography:

Carlson, Laurie Winn. A Fever in Salem.  Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999.  

Trask, Richard B., Salem Witch Trails, “The Devil hath been raised,” 1 March 1992,                

      <http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/Intro.html> (18 February 2005).

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Metzger, Susan. 1692: Mysterious Affliction or Medical Epidemic. 18 March  2005. <http://www.hocuspocustours.com/> Date that you access this page.

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