The Salem Witch Trials and the Ergot Hypothesis

The Salem witch trials of the early 1690s were the most notorious and lethal witch hunt in American history. At the heart of the trials, the Village of Salem was a town at its boiling point, but the complex political and social factors at play still seem insufficient to explain the happenings that ultimately transpired. Could it be that the affliction at the heart of Salem, the proximate cause of all the death and despair, was caused by a fungus?