# Salem witches had chorea
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salem-witches-had-chorea/408881
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [June 21, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salem-witches-had-chorea/408881 "2007-06-21T17:45:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Severe\_Drought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severe_Drought)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salem-witches-had-chorea/408881/1 "2007-06-21T17:45:39Z")
Some of those accused in the Salem witch trials were from families that are known to carry Huntington’s chorea - a genetic disease where the patients convulse. Certainly to someone in that time period it would have appeared that they were afflicted by the devil…
[http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/40/Huntington-s-chorea-disease.html](http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/40/Huntington-s-chorea-disease.html)
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salem-witches-had-chorea/408881/2 "2007-06-21T18:08:08Z")
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always though that it was the \*\*accusers \*\* writhing, not the witches.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salem-witches-had-chorea/408881/3 "2007-06-21T19:19:16Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, Severe Drought.
A link to the column you’re commenting on is appreciated. I presume this recent column is the one: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070615.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070615.html) But note also this older column: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050114.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050114.html)
> [@](#):
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> Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always though that it was the accusers writhing, not the witches.
This is one of the big problems of the Huntington’s Chorea theory. Years ago, I read the article by John Terry Maltsberger (Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, v. 16, 1961) that laid out the theory. According to my notes, he listed seven accused withches from Salem who were descended from people who had Huntington’s Chorea. Trouble is, none of these accused witches are described in the contemporary records as having convulsions. More interesting is the case of Elizabeth Knapp, the accuser in a pre-Salem witchcraft case. She did have convulsions and she was descended from people with Huntington’s Chorea. It’s not clear that her convulsions were caused by Huntington’s Chorea though.
As for the convulsions of the Salem accusers, there are any number of conditions that could be the cause. I’ve seen the following explanations given: fraud, encephalitis, ergotism, jimsonweed intoxication, epilepsy, hysteria, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and even delerium tremens. None of the explanations except perhaps fraud seems to have any particular edge over the others.