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Show Ergot poisoning constricts blood vessels, which causes burning sensations in the hands and feet. Strenuous dancing forces blood vessels to open wider, relieving some of the pain. The hallucinations which result from ergotism are frighteningly familiar because our modern drug lysergic acid diethylamide - LSD - is derived from ergot. As these pieces of information began to form a pattern, I devised a theory of what might have happened in Hamelin in 1284. There's little doubt that something real and terrible did happen there. In historical records which survive today in the city of Hameln, the same details emerge again and again: the date - June 26, 1284, the feast day of Saints John and Paul; the number - 130 children; the stranger - always dressed in bright clothes; the silver flute; the names of the mayor and councilmen; the tradition that the Piper led the children through the East Gate into the mountain. And a glass picture window installed in the Market Church around the year 1300 showed a colorfully dressed man surrounded by children. We can never know what really happened in Hamelin, but the fictional events in this book are physically possible, and tBney are based on existing research material from Hameln, Germany. For further reading on ergot poisoning, I recommend THE DAY OF SAINT ANTHONY'S FIRE by John G. Fuller- |