Comments on: "One thing about living in New England I never could stomach, all the damn vampires."

"One thing about living in New England I never could stomach, all the damn vampires."

Ghostride The Whip — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:37:54 -0800

Ever heard of the Jewett City Vampires? Sure, you know about Salem and its witches, but New Englanders also went through several vampire panics that come far closer to the present than any Salem shenanigans. But who were the real people behind the modern legends? One common thread in the American myths: Tuberculosis (PDF).

By: mr. digits

mr. digits — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:59:17 -0800

Geez, the past is a foreign place.

By: Blasdelb

Blasdelb — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:02:51 -0800

"Nineteenth-century cures included drinking brown sugar dissolved in water and frequent horseback riding. "If they were being honest," Bell says, "the medical establishment would have said, 'There's nothing we can do, and it's in the hands of God.'"" Not quite, there were actually some reasonably effective management strategies out there at the time. For example John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, recommended digging a specifically sized hole in fresh earth and letting the consumptive patient breath into it for extended periods of time. This would mimic the effect of a humidifier, which can provide significant relief. On the other hand he also recommended that late stage patients suck the breast of a healthy woman, so their miles varied quite a bit.

By: Chocolate Pickle

Chocolate Pickle — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:16:38 -0800

I thought that vampire legends were founded on the behavior of people infected with rabies.

By: radiosilents

radiosilents — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:26:24 -0800

I grew up right in that general area and went to school in Griswold, but only saw wannabe vampires prowling the hallways. It was the 80s, so it was hardly out of the ordinary.

By: Roman Graves

Roman Graves — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:15:00 -0800

I thought that vampire legends were founded on the behavior of people infected with rabies. According to this informative book by Paul Barber, villagers looking for answers would exhume the first victim in a mysterious string of deaths and find the body rosey, plump, and with apparently longer hair and nails. Not understanding decomposition they assumed the dead were still alive and feeding.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:18:43 -0800

Mercy Brown, represent!

By: fermezporte

fermezporte — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:11:10 -0800

The part about the whole family falling ill (presumably with tuberculosis) in the Jewett City Vampires case is really interesting to me. Before Pasteur and the germ theory of disease, TB was thought to be hereditary, but that was thrown away once the causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis was identified. However, in recent years, TB and other mycobacterial infections are starting to be linked to really specific heritable defects in the immune system.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:19:37 -0800

Sookie Stackhouse meets her one true love at last

By: Ghostride The Whip

Ghostride The Whip — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:23:11 -0800

There's a new edition of that Barber book here and it's in-stock. I'm sorely tempted.