# Did ergotism cause werewolf scares?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 6, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653 "2007-08-06T17:39:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/21 "2007-08-08T16:42:57Z")
To answer the OP, no.
As has already been said, ergotamine poisoning was known as St Anthony’s fire. The danger of ergot was recognised and its symptoms known. The subject is given a very good examination in the book The Beast Within. Naturally, I can’t find my copy at the moment. However, various cable documentaries still claim ergot poisoning was behind the werewolf myth.
There were occasional werewolf scares in Europe. For many judges the distinction between witch and werewolf was small or non existent.
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### Author:  [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/22 "2007-08-08T17:45:33Z")
How recent are werewolf reports? If the only defence against a werewolf is a silver bullet then presumably it must be fairly recent (unless that’s just an idea from recent times of course).
If our understanding of ergot poisoning precedes our reporting of werewolves then this is not the drug you are looking for.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/23 "2007-08-08T17:52:43Z")
The idea that silver is the only defense against werewolves is from Hollywood (IIRC specifically The Werewolf Of London and The Wolfman). Defenses from folklore include
-any weapon. in some versions werewolves are as vulnerable as real wolves
-cold iron
-drawing three drops of blood causes the werewolf to become human again
-calling the werewolf by their Christian name causes them to become human again
-a rusted key
Note that trials weren’t just conducted for people accused of being werewolves. Wolves and feral dogs were sometimes accused of harboring devils and put on trial. The film The Advocate involves a trial for a pig accused of killing a boy.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/24 "2007-08-08T22:56:33Z")
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton]
How recent are werewolf reports? If the only defence against a werewolf is a silver bullet then presumably it must be fairly recent (unless that’s just an idea from recent times of course).
If our understanding of ergot poisoning precedes our reporting of werewolves then this is not the drug you are looking for.
[/QUOTE]
Pretty old. I remember reading about a man in my history of Red Riding Hood book called [Peter Stube or Peter Stumpp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stumpp). This is from the late 1500s.
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### Author:  [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/25 "2007-08-08T23:19:07Z")
Haven’t most cultures had a shapeshifter tradition? Werewolves are only one of the European types of human-animal shifters. Vikings had the bear-sarks (bear shirts), known as berserkers today. Japanese tradition is full of shapeshifting – fox women are especially prevalent in the lore. Jaguars in Central America. It’s a common world-wide belief, so the orgin is more attributable to something in the human psyche. Affinity with certain animals, perhaps, or fear of others, rather than to cases of accidental ergotism. Though the ceremonial ingestion of substances administered by the local shaman might help an individual believe that he or she had changed form.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/26 "2007-08-08T23:24:06Z")
[QUOTE=Tapiotar]
Haven’t most cultures had a shapeshifter tradition?
[/QUOTE]
Yes. Vikings also had tales of men donning wolf skins and becoming werewolves. The aborigines have tales of an evil weredingo.
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### Author:  [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2007, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/27 "2007-08-09T03:48:49Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug]
**Did _egotism_ cause werewolf scares?**
[/QUOTE]
I feel better, now. I read: “Did egoism cause werewolf scares?”
I guess my werewolves are more introspective than yours, BoD. (Yes, I’m aware that Egoism and Egotism are often used interchangeably, but technically, they’re not _quite_ the same.)
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### Author:  [@neorxnawange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neorxnawange)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2007, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/28 "2007-08-09T03:57:14Z")
[QUOTE=Elenfair]
I feel better, now. I read: “Did egoism cause werewolf scares?”
I guess my werewolves are more introspective than yours, BoD. (Yes, I’m aware that Egoism and Egotism are often used interchangeably, but technically, they’re not _quite_ the same.)
[/QUOTE]
Funny, because I was afraid that people would misread the thread as, Did eroticism cause werewolf scares?
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/29 "2007-08-09T15:51:47Z")
I had never heard ergotism caused werewolf legends, but I had heard that rabies (plus considerable exaggeration) had. Is this something else that seeped into my head from the Discovery Channel?
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ergotism-cause-werewolf-scares/414653/30 "2007-08-10T16:03:31Z")
The rabies assertion makes no sense either. The symptoms of rabies were known, and everybody knew you got it from being bitten by a mad dog. Addittionally, the classic diagnosis of Lycanthropia includes a dry mouth not a foaming one.
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