Acceptable Risk is a 1995 novel by American author Robin Cook.
A scientist, Edward Armstrong, discovers a mold in a spooky old house he lives in with his girlfriend. In order to test his theory that the discovery could help people feel calm in extreme situations, the scientist injects himself and his fellow scientists with the mold. The man undergoes some strange changes, which may or may not have something to do with the house's first owner, a woman who was hanged under suspicion of being a witch. Are the side effects worth the benefits? What if the side effect was something that had never been seen before? This book explores the practice of designer drugs.
The book opens with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 where Elizabeth Stewart is prosecuted on suspicions of being a witch. This occurs on the insistence of witnesses who see children acting strangely after eating rye bread. Despite the pleas of her husband who happens to be a wealthy shipbuilder, she is executed at the insistence of Reverend Increase Mather, who convinces her husband with mysterious evidence.
Three hundred years later, the Stewart family fortune is inherited by Kimberly Stewart, a nurse. Kim is introduced to the brilliant scientist Edward Armstrong by their mutual friend Stanton Lewis. The two immediately fall in love. A casual visit to her old family house in Salem proves to be a turning point in the story. In the basement of the old house, Edward finds a new strain of Claviceps purpurea which induces a great sense of calmness, sexual drive, confidence, etc. Edward immediately assembles a team and begins working on developing the new drug with help from Stanton. To save time, Edward and his team start taking the drug themselves. During this time, Kim is working on finding out about the evidence that was used to convict her ancestor. Finding out that the evidence is in the possession of Harvard University, she makes inquiries in that direction.
Soon, strange things begin happening in Salem. The town begins experiencing acts of vandalism, and even murder. Edward's Jack Russell dog notably falls victim to the mysterious killer. Meanwhile, Kim finally locates the evidence mentioned in the letter. It turns out to be the fetus of a deformed baby which was given birth by Elizabeth. The fetus is taken as evidence by the clergy of her covenant with the devil. Kim rushes home to inform Edward that the drug they are taking has teratogenic effects. However, at home, she is attacked by Edward and his team who are in a kind of trance. In the ensuing pursuit, the house is set ablaze killing all but two of the researchers. In the epilogue, Kim visits Edward who is a resident at a medical facility, where he still has the strain in him and therefore transforms into a man with raging episodes.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in jail.
Ergotism is the effect of long-term ergot poisoning, traditionally due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the Claviceps purpurea fungus—from the Latin clava "club" or clavus "nail" and -ceps for "head", i.e. the purple club-headed fungus—that infects rye and other cereals, and more recently by the action of a number of ergoline-based drugs. It is also known as ergotoxicosis, ergot poisoning, and Saint Anthony's fire.
Abigail Williams was an 11- or 12-year-old girl who, along with nine-year-old Betty Parris, was among the first of the children to falsely accuse their neighbors of witchcraft in 1692; these accusations eventually led to the Salem witch trials.
The King of Torts (2003) is a legal/suspense novel written by American author John Grisham. Doubleday published the first edition (ISBN 0-385-50804-2) in hardcover format; it immediately debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, remaining in the top 15 for over 20 weeks. Dell Publishing published the paperback edition later in 2003 (ISBN 0-440-24153-7). Penguin Random House released an audiobook version in 2007.
Bridget Bishop was the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Nineteen were hanged, and one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death. Altogether, about 200 people were tried.
Fullmetal Alchemist 3: Kami o Tsugu Shōjo is the third Fullmetal Alchemist video game for the PlayStation 2 and a role-playing video game continuation of the series of Square Enix games. The first two games in the series are Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel and Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir.
"The Dreams in the Witch House" is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos cycle. It was written in January/February 1932 and first published in the July 1933 issue of Weird Tales.
The Clue of the Tapping Heels is the 16th volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1939. An updated, revised, and largely different story was published under the same title in 1970. A facsimile edition of the 1939 version was published by Applewood Books. As of 2006, this title is still in print.
Robert Ellis Cahill was a folklorist and author. He was the author of more than three dozen books on New England history and folklore, as well as on scuba diving, shipwrecks and pirates.
Sabrina Goes to Rome is a 1998 American television film produced for ABC, airing on October 4, 1998. The film is a part of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series franchise and is the second TV film made for the series following the 1996 Sabrina the Teenage Witch film, which was produced before the TV series went into production.
The Burning Court (1937) is a famous locked room mystery by John Dickson Carr. However, it contains neither Gideon Fell nor Henry Merrivale, Carr's two major detectives. It was published in the United States, and was highly controversial upon its first printing, due to its unorthodox ending. Today, it is hailed as Carr's best non-series novel.
Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. The literary and dramatic depictions are discussed in Marion Gibson's Witchcraft Myths in American Culture and see also Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692
Medical explanations of bewitchment, especially as exhibited during the Salem witch trials but in other witch-hunts as well, have emerged because it is not widely believed today that symptoms of those claiming affliction were actually caused by bewitchment. The reported symptoms have been explored by a variety of researchers for possible biological and psychological origins.
Sarah Wildes was wrongly convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials and was executed by hanging. She maintained her innocence throughout the process, and was later exonerated. Her husband's first wife was a member of the Gould family, cousins of the Putnam family, the primary accusers, and court records document the family feuds which led to her persecution.
Elizabeth Howe was one of the accused in the Salem witch trials. She was found guilty and executed on July 19, 1692.
The Canterville Ghost is a 1996 family film directed by Sydney Macartney. The mystery, romance, and adventure stars Patrick Stewart and Neve Campbell; it is based on an 1887 Oscar Wilde short story of the same title which was serialized in the magazine The Court and Society Review. This story has been adapted to film and made-for-TV movies several times since the original film of the same name.
Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE), theorized in the 1970s, occurs when a pregnant woman uses cocaine including crack cocaine and thereby exposes her fetus to the drug. Babies whose mothers used cocaine while pregnant supposedly have increased risk of several different health issues during growth and development.
The Initiation, the first part in a series of works entitled The Secret Circle, is a young adult novel by author L. J. Smith. Smith is famous for her other works such as The Vampire Diaries and the Night World series.
Margaret Scott was found guilty of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials and was executed by hanging on September 22, 1692. She was part of the last group to be executed, which also included Mary Eastey, Martha Corey, Ann Pudeator, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, and Wilmot Redd. She was the only accused person from Rowley to be executed. As a lower-class, long-term widow, having lost several children in infancy, she was a prototypical witch candidate. When her husband, Benjamin, died, he left a very small estate and she, being unable to remarry, was reduced to begging, which invited resentment and suspicion. In this manner, her circumstances were comparable to fellow victim Sarah Good.
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