Mad Cow (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) caused by a prion - a contagious
'organism' even smaller than a virus. I believe there was a form in the
Pacific and/or New Guinea endemic among folk in the habit of eating their
dead enemies, especially their brain, so that they could 'absorb' their
more admirable qualities.
Ergot was a bit unfunny too because the terrified riots led to deaths by
violence, in fires and by people interpreting it as God's wrath on the
unrighteous or the work of witches.
Aren't people wonderful?
Andrew
>Isn't it the precursor to mad cow disease????. Actually, not that funny. A
>dear friend of mine recently succumbed to what CDC 'believes' was mad cow.
>Scary stuff.
>
>Jim
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Andrew Fildes [mailto:afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 1:15 PM
>To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [OM] Re: [OT] Ergot - was Rangefinder cameras
>
>
>>Go on then Ian... what is "ergot"?
>>
>>Chris
>
>It's a fungal blight of wheat which contains a hallucinogen similar to LSD.
>It was blamed for some unusual occurences of mass panic and hysteria in
>medieval times when whole villages ate bread made from batches of affected
>grain. A derivative, ergometrin (?), is still used as a obstetric drug, I
>think (have to check with my wife - she's the midwife).
>In recent times, it may be implicated in highly localised examples of
>strange behaviour, like the deranged compulsion to collect small pieces of
>metal encased glass of various types...
>Andrew
>
>
>
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