The Mercy Brown vampire incident, which occurred in 1892, is one of the best documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse in order to perform certain ritual activities, such as the conduct of 'magical' rites, supposedly for the purpose of banishing an undead manifestation. 1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... By other animals Humans are not the only species to bury their dead. ... Undead is a collective name for all types of corporeal and non-corporeal entities who were once alive in the normal sense, died, and then continued to exist in the world of the living, usually as a ghost or animated corpse. ...

In Exeter, Rhode Island, the Brown family suffered a sequence of tragic tuberculosis infections in the last two decades of the 19th century. Tuberculosis was called consumption at the time, and was a devastating and much feared disease. Exeter is a town located in Washington County, Rhode Island. ... Tuberculous lungs show up on an X-ray image Tuberculosis is an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (miliary TB), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Consumption is also an archaic name for the disease tuberculosis, presumably because, prior to the age of modern antibiotics, often it would seem that the disease was consuming patients from within as they coughed up blood. ...

The mother of the family, Mary, was the first to die of the disease, followed in 1888 by her eldest daughter, Mary Olive. 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...

In 1891, another daughter, Mercy, also contracted the disease, dying in January 1892. Two months later her brother, Edwin, also became sick. 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

The father, George, believed that one of his dead family members was returning from the grave as a vampire and causing his son's illness. This was in accordance with certain threads of contemporary folklore that linked multiple deaths in one family with undead activity. Consumption was a poorly understood condition at the time, and the subject of much urban myth. Count Orlok from Nosferatu A vampire is a mythical or folkloric creature said to subsist on human and/or animal blood often having magical powers and the ability to transform. ... Urban Legend is also the name of a 1998 movie. ...

He pursuaded several villagers to help him exhume the bodies. Both Mary and Mary Olive's body had been significantly decomposed over the intervening 4 years. The body of Mercy was still relatively intact. This was taken as a sign that the child was undead, and the agent of young Edwin's condition. In fact, in the cold soil of a New England winter for two months, the lack of decomposition was not surprising. Modern New England, the six northeastern-most states of the United States, indicated by red The New England region of the United States is located in the northeastern corner of the country. ...

Mercy's heart was removed from her body, burnt, and the remnants prepared into a potion that was given to the sick Edwin to drink. Unfortunately, despite all his efforts, George was unsuccessful in protecting his son, who tragically died two months later.

Modern medicine has demystified tuberculosis, although it is still held in great fear and shrouded in myth in certain cultures without access to modern medical understanding.