In October 1892, an outbreak of tuberculosis in Exeter, Rhode Island, led a community to exhume the bodies of members of the Brown family, culminating in the belief that a deceased daughter named Mercy was an undead vampire preying on her surviving brother Edwin.
Historian and podcast creator Aaron Mahnke chronicles this historical episode in his new book, Exhumed, published by Running Press at $30.00, as detailed in reports from Science News. As Science News reported, the Exeter community inspected Mercy L. Brown’s corpse and noted she was well-preserved, her hair and nails appeared longer and blood dribbled from her skin when it was pierced—evidence that confirmed everyone’s worst fear: Mercy was indeed a vampire. Despite the discovery of the tuberculosis bacterium a decade before these events, the town burned Mercy’s heart to protect Edwin, though the ritual failed to save his life. These events helped inspire Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was published five years later.
In Plain English: The Clinical Takeaway
- Post-Mortem Preservation: Corpses buried in winter temperatures were cold enough to substantially slow decomposition, mimicking lifelike preservation.
- Pathogenic Reality: Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium, a fact established a decade before Mercy’s story unfolded.
- Historical Misattribution: Information travels slowly at times, and deeply rooted notions can prove stubborn to alter when confronted with undeniable facts.
Epidemiological Blind Spots and the Persistence of Superstition
The Exeter tragedy serves as a reminder that information travels slowly at times, and deeply rooted notions can prove stubborn to alter when confronted with undeniable facts. Without modern science to explain the unexplained, people often filled in the blanks with stories. Mahnke’s work expands beyond the Brown family tragedy to catalog how historical populations leveraged ritualistic behaviors to manage existential dread. According to Science News, historical anxieties manifested in extreme practices, ranging from installing traps in graves to prevent the dead from rising to consuming the blood of the recently executed as a remedy for epilepsy.
Historical Missteps from Corpse Medicine to Contaminated Pewter
The cultural appetite for remedies to control mortality transcended rural New England superstition. According to Science News, bygone medical customs frequently incorporated gruesome treatments, highlighting that Leonardo da Vinci appreciated corpse medicine—the practice of utilizing human remains from the deceased for healing purposes. Practitioners believed the human body contained “vital spirits.” Similarly, the historical medicalization of ailments led to strange dietary misconceptions, such as 17th-century Europeans labeling tomatoes “poison apples” after consumers fell ill or died. The true vector of toxicity was lead leached out of pewter dishes by tomatoes’ acidic juice.
Public health evolution is further mirrored in mundane modern architecture. The traditional red, white, and blue spiral markers found outside barbershops originated from the profession’s historical practice of bloodletting. Red stripes stand for blood, blue for veins and white for the rags used for clean-up. The ball on top is said to represent the bowl that captured the blood. And the pole itself represents the wand patients squeezed during the procedure.
| Historical Phenomenon | Reported Mechanism or Belief | Actual Scientific Etiology |
|---|---|---|
| Exeter Vampire Panic (1892) | Exhumed corpse preserved by vampirism | Slowed decomposition due to winter temperatures |
| Corpse Medicine | Consumption of human remains to use “vital spirits” | Ineffective ritualistic practice |
| The “Poison Apple” (17th Century) | Tomatoes blamed for fatal poisoning | Lead toxicity caused by leaching from pewter tableware |
Contraindications & When to Consult a Doctor
Exhumed makes it clear that we haven’t outrun the instinct to cling to stories and rituals that offer a sense of control over the thing we fear most: death; we’ve just given it different packaging. Whether examining historical folklore or analyzing modern life, humanity’s fundamental quest to rationalize the unknown remains.
References
- “Tuberculosis (TB) Data and Statistics.” CDC TB Data
- “Global Tuberculosis Report.” WHO Global TB Report
- “Historical Evolution of Germ Theory and Public Health.” PubMed Central
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
