Dr. Jeckyl & Mr Hyde--less fictional than we thought?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Read this–

The Times & The Sunday Times

Just how much did the ergotine overdose effect Stevenson?
What was his “mad behavior”?
How much influence did this OD have on Dr. Jeckyl & Mr Hyde?

Does anybody know much about the drug Ergotine?

[CalMeacham]

1.) I thought it was widely believed that Stevenson was influenced by the effects of cocaine on people in coming up with Hyde

2.) Stevenson himself said that the story was inspired by “a bogey dream” he had

3.) hallucingetic ergorism has been suggested as the root cause of the Salem Witchcraft hysteria, an idea we’ve discussed on this Board before.

4.) Hallucinatory ergotism was apparently at the heart of a stange outbreak in France many years ago, as chronicled in the book The Day of St. Anthony’s Fire. It’s by the same guy who wrote The Inteerrupted Journey and Incident at Exeter, but This is apparently one of his credible books.

[Dan_Norder]

Just more pop science from people looking for publicity. The ergot poisoning theories are pretty ridiculous in the other cases and just as ridiculous now.

[DocCathode]

Crap. The idea of ergot poisoning as an explanation for lycanthropy or witchcraft has been discredited. Adam Douglas thoroughly debunks it in the excellent The Beast Within-A History Of The Werewolf. Looking at his footnotes, it seems that this quote is from the already mentioned The Day Of Saint Anthony’s Fire

tingling and burning of the hands and feet, and then a frightful heartburn. Fingers and toes are bent nearly double and clamped; the mouth is full of foam. Often the tongue is lacerated by the strength of the convulsions. There is a severe secretion of spittle. The sick utter that they are being destroyed by a burning fire. They feel great giddiness, and some of them become blind; the intellectual capacities are polluted, a fog comes over and destroys the mind.

In 1951, a few hundred people in Pont-Sant-Esprit were poisoned by flour containing ergot. Their symptoms matched the classic description above. If Stevenson was given an overdose, or if the medication contained ergotamine rather than the intended extract, he would have spent the time in bed, writhing in agony and screaming in pain, not acting like Hyde.