One fun fact: one proof of being a werewolf is when your middle finger and ringfinger is the same length. Which has been proved by science to be a sign of aggressive people.
In pamistry it is a sign of affectionate and caring people.
in science it is a sign of hormonal disbalance. (hightend testostorone levels - which would explain the often agressive behaviour)
Aparrently the term lycanthropy didn't used to refer to werewolves. It was a psychological term refering to a person turning feral.
Clinical lycanthropy is as a rare psychiatric syndrome which involves a delusion that the affected person can or has transformed into an animal, or that he or she is an animal. Its name is connected to the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which people are said to physically shapeshift into wolves. The terms zoanthropy or therianthropy are also sometimes used for the delusion that one has turned into an animal in general and not specifically a wolf.
Lycanthropy is but one form of therianthropy, the ability to metamorphose into animals in general. The term therianthrope literally means \"beast-man.\"
There is also ergotism. Ergotism is the effect of long-term ergot poisoning, traditionally due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by fungus which infects rye and other cereals. It is also known as ergotoxicosis, ergot poisoning and Saint Anthony's Fire. Ergot poisoning is one of the explanations of bewitchment. The symptoms can be roughly divided into convulsive symptoms and gangrenous symptoms. Convulsive symptoms include painful seizures and spasms, diarrhea, paresthesias, itching, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Usually the gastrointestinal effects precede central nervous system effects. As well as seizures there can be hallucinations resembling those produced by LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide, to which the ergot alkaloid ergotamine is an immediate precursor and therefore shares some structural similarities), and mental effects including mania or psychosis.
The convulsive symptoms that can be a result of consuming ergot tainted rye have also been said to be the cause of accusations of “bewitchment” that spurred the Salem witch trials.
So let's hypothesize.
Imagine yourself a farmer growing rye. You have a darling spouse, 3 - 4 children and a beutiful little cottage right next to a little pond and little forest. Very pittoresque. You pick the rye, take it to the local mill, get the flour and eat the bread you made from that flour. Suddenly you start feeling a bit queezy. No matter. I'll just drink some milk which I got for my neighbour since I give him some of my rye to feed the cows and eat some of my bread. Guess what? You have ergot poisoning. You start twitching, spasming, hallucinating... Whole nine yards. Superstitous and frightened as you are. You run of to the woods in your delusional haze. Still holding on to some of your sanity you hide in the woods because you know you've been cursed and either the inquisition or a generic lynch mob will probably want you dead. But you're starving. So you catch a random woodland critter. Which is infected with rabies. Which you eat raw. And this goes on for a month. Quite conviniently it's a full moon. Now ergot poisoned and infected with rabies and god knows what else, it seems pretty damn logical to start howling at the moon. One night you accidentaly (read delliriously) stumble upon a road. Which goes through the forest. And you see a carriage. And they see you. Or should we say; they see a messy, hairy, untendered in any way, and not to mention bloodied man-like beast with a foaming mouth. Oh look. it's a full moon! It has to be a werewolf!
Before you know it you are riddled with silver bullets by some van helsing douche. You would even ignore the fact that they were silver and satisfy yourself with the fact they they were BULLETS. Which have an often singular purpose, no matter which material they're made of.
