Tuberculosis
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Folklore (Vampires and Witches)
Before the Industrial Revolution, tuberculosis may sometimes have been regarded as vampirism. When one member of a family died from it, the other members that were infected would lose their health slowly. People believed that this was caused by the original victim draining the life from the other family members.
Furthermore, people who had TB exhibited symptoms similar to what people considered to be vampire traits. People with TB often have symptoms such as red, swollen eyes (which also creates a sensitivity to bright light), pale skin and coughing blood, suggesting the idea that the only way for the afflicted to replenish this loss of blood was by sucking blood.
Another folk belief attributed it to being forced, nightly, to attend fairy revels, so that the victim wasted away owing to lack of rest; this belief was most common when a strong connection was seen between the fairies and the dead. Similarly, but less commonly, it was attributed to the victims being "hagridden"—being transformed into horses by witches (hags) to travel to their nightly meetings, again resulting in a lack of rest.
TB was romanticized in the nineteenth century.  Many at the time believed TB produced feelings of euphoria referred to as "Spes phthisica" or "hope of the consumptive". It was believed that TB sufferers who were artists had bursts of creativity as the disease progressed. It was also believed that TB sufferers acquired a final burst of energy just before they died which made women more beautiful and men more creative.
Mercy Brown: Rhode Island's Vampire
By Rosemary Ellen Guiley
c. Visionary Living, Inc
Mercy Lea Brown (1871-1892), a young victim of a
tuberculosis epidemic, entered folklore as America's most famous
alleged vampire.
News of the European vampire cult that leaked out to the West in
the early eighteenth century swept on to infect the American colonies
in New England, especially Connecticut and western Rhode Island.
There, deaths due to highly virulent diseases such as tuberculosis,
measles and smallpox were blamed on vampirism, and bodies were exhumed
and mutilated in the same fashion as had been done for centuries in
the rural parts of the Balkans. The nature of infectious disease was
not understood. Vampirism was an easy explanation, especially where
people died of tuberculosis, a disease which literally wastes away the
body.
The Mercy Brown vampire case of Rhode Island, which dates to the
late nineteenth century, is the most famous of the vampire episodes.
In the late 1800s, the George Brown family of Exeter, Rhode Island,
was stricken with tuberculosis. Brown's wife, Mary, died, followed by
their daughter, Olive. Four daughters and a son remained. Four years
later, Edwin, the son, became ill with consumption. He and his bride
left for Colorado, where Edwin sought treatment at mineral springs.
During his absence, and about two years after Edwin showed the first
signs of lung trouble, daughter Mercy became sick and died on January
18, 1892. She was nineteen years old. Edwin then returned to the home
of his father-in-law, Willis Himes, where his condition worsened and
he became critically ill.
It is possible that Brown was aware of the Sarah Tillinghast
vampire case of 1796. According to an article in the Providence
Journal on March 19, 1892, he was besieged by people who
"expressed implicit faith in the old theory that by some
unexplained and unreasonable way in some part of the deceased relative’s
body live flesh and blood might be found..." These friends and
neighbors told Brown that the only way to save Edwin was to dig up the
bodies if his wife and two daughters to determine if any of them still
had hearts full of blood, and to burn the heart and feed Edwin the
ashes.
An article in the same newspaper on March 21, 1892, explained in
detail the definition of vampires and the vampire cult, attributing
its origins to the Slavic people of Russian, Poland, Bohemia and other
parts of Europe. The article went on:
How the tradition got to Rhode Island and planted itself firmly
here, cannot be said. It was in existence in Connecticut and Maine
50 and 100 years ago, and the people of the South County say they
got it from their ancestors, as far back in some cases as the
beginning of the eighteenth century. The idea never seems to have
been accepted in the northern part of the state, but every five or
ten years it has cropped up in Coventry, West Greenwich, Exeter,
Hopkinton, Richmond and the neighboring towns.
Brown himself had "no confidence in the old-time theory,"
but also received little help from the medical community. He finally
acquiesced to pressure and agreed to dig up the bodies of Mary, Olive
and Mercy, in order to try to save his son.
The medical examiner, Dr. Harold Metcalf – who also did not
believe in vampires – was on hand at Chestnut Hill Cemetery during
the exhumations. The corpses of Mary and Olive were well decomposed.
Mary was partially mummified and had no blood in her heart. Mary Olive
was only a skeleton with a thick growth of hair remaining. But the
body of Mercy was judged by some to be in exceptionally good
condition; however Metcalf said her state was natural and not
exceptional. Witnesses who had been at her wake swore that her body
had shifted in the coffin.
Brown instructed Dr. Metcalf to remove Mercy's heart and liver.
Witnesses were astonished when clotted and decomposed blood dripped
from the organs, which they took to be a sure sign of vampirism, even
though Metcalf assured them it was not an unusual occurrence for a
nine-week-old corpse. Brown took the organs to a rock and burned them.
The ashes were saved. Dr. Metcalf told Edwin to take the ashes and mix
a tiny amount in medicine he'd prescribed, and drink the mixture.
Edwin allegedly followed the instructions, but died soon thereafter.
Over the years, the story has grown and become embellished. It has
been claimed that six or seven girls in the Brown family died before
Mercy was exhumed, and they all bore "the mark of the
vampire" on their throats when they died (the vampire biting
victims on the throat was popularized in fiction).
Mercy's grave continues to attract visitors. People report seeing a
blue light or a glowing ball of light hovering over the grave, and
other visitors claim they can hear a girl's voice whisper,
"Please help me, let me out." It may be imagination, or the
sighing of the wind – or perhaps the spirit of Mercy Brown still
lies restless in her grave.
With Permission and many many thanks to Rosemary Ellen Guiley
_________________
Adapted from The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and Other
Monsters by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, published by Facts On File,
A TALE of VAMPIRES
The vampire/tuberculosis link exists in many other cases. When Capt Isaac Burton married in 1790 in Vermont he didn’t expect to be soon a widower. But soon after the wedding his bride, Rachel Harris, died of TB.
Eventually Burton married a second time, to Hilda Powel. But she, too, became ill with
TB - although friends were convinced the cause was Rachel, returning as a vampire to kill the second wife.
Acting on advice, in February 1793 a thousand people gathered to watch Rachel’s body exhumed, whereupon vital organs were cut out to be fed to Hilda as a cure, and the body burned. Regardless of this, Hilda died in September.
On 5 Feb 1970 Franz von Poblocki in the Polish town of Kantrzyno, was buried in the local graveyard. Two weeks later, his son Anton also died, while other members of the family experienced debilitating illness and terrifying nightmares.
To the locals, the answer was clear. Even in the late 20th century, Franz had become a vampire, and was feeding on the souls of his family.
The family brought in a vampire hunter who beheaded Anton’s corpse and headed to the graveyard to exhume Franz. The undertaker immediately went to the priest, who tried to stop them, but that night, Franz was dug up and beheaded. The obvious cause of the deaths was TB, and the family and hunter were put on trial and found guilty. Though a court of appeal dropped the charges.
Today we are generally less superstitious of illness. But in the past we can say vampires existed in a sick society in more ways than one.
Published with kind permission of© Anthony North, November 2007. For more scary, interesting and puzzling facts
please visit Beyond the blog, Vampires and Sickness
and Diary of a writer and
Anthony North
WESTERLY The vampire, romanticized in literature as a creature who sleeps by day and becomes a blood-sucking monster by night, has inspired the curious and fostered superstition for centuries.
Today's scholar has separated fact from fiction, folklore from literary license.
At a meeting this week of the Westerly Historical Society, Michael Bell, a trained folklorist, anthropologist and author of "Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires," discussed vampire tales spawned in New England between the 18th and 19th centuries.
Up until the Civil War, the major cause of death in America was tuberculosis, an airborne disease for which there was no known cure. The deadly epidemic was wasting whole families and entire communities.
In a last desperate effort to combat the plague, families began exhuming their dead in an attempt to save the living. Essentially, the corpses of people who died from tuberculosis were viewed as vampires, responsible for contaminating others.
As a defensive measure, much like inoculation - where a little of a disease is injected into the body so the body can build resistance - families would dig up the dead, burn the heart and feed the ashes to family members in an attempt to ward off the disease. If the heart contained liquid, it was used to treat the disease.
In some cases, all of the exhumed remains were burned to ward off the death of family members. Sometimes the bones were rearranged. Heads and leg bones were severed.
These were not clandestine activities Bell explained during his talk at the Westerly Public Library. And while physicians and clergy did not endorse the practice, they did not openly condemn it either.
It was a time of "do-it-yourself" medicine and those afflicted with tuberculosis evoked the idea of a vampire.
Victims suffered the most during the night and woke up coughing; bloody spittle gathered at the corners of their mouths; there was blood on their bedclothes. Ghastly in appearance, they seemed to be walking corpses, with their lives draining away.
"The symptoms very much mimic what you think a vampire attack would do," Bell remarked.
The patients, with their emaciated forms, crimson lips and sunken eyes, fed the theory that the evil in the corpse must be killed. And while the living looked as though they were dying, after they did die of tuberculosis (or consumption, as it was also called) they seemed to grow, Bell explained. Their corpses would appear to gain weight when they began to bloat, their nails would curl and their hair would grow.
Rhode Island had the dubious distinction of being named the Transylvania of America but neighboring Connecticut had its share of "vampires" as well.
In New England, "vampirism" thrived outside the Puritan communities, in the fringe areas. A documented account appeared in The Connecticut Courant in 1765 and later in the Norwich Weekly Courier. Bell said such accounts were also recorded in the Providence Journal. He noted about 20 cases of vampire folklore chronicled throughout New England.
Vampirism, he said, has been described as "a corpse that comes to the attention of the populace in times of crisis."
The vampire tales were more legend than historical account. Bell, in a slide presentation, showed a recently discovered broken tombstone for Simon Whipple Aldrich, who died in North Smithfield, which reads in part, "Although consumption's vampire grasp had seized thy mortal frame ...."
Stuckley Tillinghast, father of 14, had a recurring dream in which he lost half his orchard. His dreams turned out to be prophetic as he saw his family die of consumption one by one, until half of them, like the orchard, were gone.
The departing family members had all complained that Sarah, the first to die, had returned. Tillinghast exhumed the bodies of his children. Some bodies had decayed but Sarah was well preserved. So her heart was cut out.
Stories of the undead - vampires - were adopted by gothic literature. They took a folk figure, transformed it into a literary sophisticate and added a sexual element. The literary vampire lives for centuries while folk vampires stay close to home. "Folk vampires seldom leave the grave," Bell quipped.
from Westerly Vampires
Jan Burke
A Tale of Vampires - Part 4
Yesterday I wrote about the 1990 discovery of the 19th century grave of JB-55 and those of two other individuals buried in the same manner near Griswold, Connecticut. These were not the first known cases of evidence of belief in vampires in New England.
In Rhode Island, state folklorist Michael E Bell, who has found evidence of a least 16 such cases taking place from the mid-18th century to the late 19th century, has made extensive studies of the subject. If you want to know more about New England vampire beliefs than you'll find on this blog, read his book Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires. You should also visit his Food for the Dead and Quahog folklore sites.
Bell first took interest in New England vampire lore when he talked to Everett Peck in 1981. Peck, a lifelong resident of Exeter, Rhode Island is a descendant of family of perhaps the last person in New England exhumed as a vampire: Mercy Brown.
On March 19, 1892, the Providence Journal carried a front page story about the exhumation, written in the classic overblown style of the journalism of its day. It exclaimed over the superstitions that led to the horrors of the rituals performed on the remains of Mercy, a 19-year-old woman who had lived and died in Exeter.
The Brown family had experienced a number of deaths from consumption, as tuberculosis was known then. Her mother had died of the disease, her sister in 1888, and her brother had fallen ill with it as well. Mercy caught it and died in January 1892.
The article in the Providence Journal used the term "vampire," but Bell has said this word was not used by the families or communities that practiced these rituals.
Whatever they named those who came from the grave, the belief — especially in families where mulitiple deaths occurred in a short space of time — was that in some manner the dead were drawing their sustenance from the living. The way to "kill" the one who was feeding on the others was through these rituals.
Before going into the nature of these rituals and some of the stories associated with them, let's take a quick look at the history and current status of the real cause of those deaths, tuberculosis.
For many centuries, tuberculosis was one of the most widespread of deadly diseases. The bacteria that causes it has been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 2400 BCE. In 19th century Europe, as many as one in four deaths were caused by this disease.
Far ahead of his time, in 1720 English physician Benjamin Marten first theorized that "wonderfully minute living creatures" might be causing it.
In 1854, Hermann Brehmer, a Silesian botany student cured of the disease after following his physician's recommendation of a change of climate, went on to study medicine and presented a paper, Tuberculosis is a Curable Disease, and started a sanatorium. This became the model for other facilities for TB patients, and was a major step in efforts to fight the disease.
In 1865, Jean-Antoine Villemin of France proved that TB could be transferred from humans to cattle and cattle to rabbits. It was proof that a microorganism was causing the disease.
In 1882, Robert Koch discovered a staining technique that allowed him to see that microorganism — Mycobacterium tuberculosis— under a microscope.
The development of X-rays helped in the study of the disease, but it was not until 1944 that the first effective antibiotic for the treatment of human TB cases were developed. Further progress in developing anti-TB drugs continued to be made over the next decades. Death rates dropped in industrialized countries until the mid-1980s.
TB is still causing deaths today — although curable, it causes 1.6 million deaths worldwide every year. Experts believe that 10 million people in the U.S. are currently infected — and one in ten of those infected will develop the disease. (The remaining 90% will not get the disease or infect others.)
The American Lung Association notes:
It is not easy to become infected with tuberculosis. Usually a person has to be close to someone with TB disease for a long period of time. TB is usually spread between family members, close friends, and people who work or live together. TB is spread most easily in closed spaces over a long period of time.
Consider family life in rural farming communities in the 18th and 19th centuries -- small homes, several siblings often sharing the same bed, the whole family working and living together. Add to this the long-held belief that drafts and fresh air were unhealthy. Put these and other factors together, and one sees why a family like Mercy Brown's fell prey to this disease.
Many of the points I've discussed here are part of the story I wrote with Paul Sledzik, "The Haunting of Carrick Hollow."
More tomorrow on how consumption, exhumations, the history of medicine, and vampires served as not only the inspiration for the story, but also its central conflict....
REPRODUCED WITH KIND PERMISSION OF JAN BURKE A TALE OF VAMPIRES (PART 4)
See also HISTORY OF TB and Fashion of TB
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Atypical TB
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