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I shall assume reasonable competence to answer this question, having passed through the Indian language paper of the UPSC Civil Services Examination. Sorry for the long answer. This is how I write.It was the year 2009. I had just quit my job and reached New Delhi to apply into one of the coaching institutes in New Delhi. After a long ordeal of physical and mental agony, ( read my other answer of how it feels in the first few days at Old Rajinder Nagar) I secured admission into one of the most sought after coaching centres in New Delhi. At this point, my knowledge of the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) was an unconditional and unadulterated nullity. I just knew that passing this exam would give me a job and perhaps some of my dignity back (Of which I had none left after quitting a well paying software job).Rather sheepishly, I enter into the main foyer of this coaching center a few days ahead of the first session. The building was constructed recently. It was a glass and granite structure, quite luxurious for a UPSC coaching class. The massive round pillars enveloped in huge brown granite tiles, the enormous glass windows that were perhaps 12 feet high, glistening ivory hued ceramic tiles reflecting the recessed LED lighting and the upholstery in the room was top class as well. No rusted benches, no leaking ceiling, no cracked flooring, no broken chairs, no stinking carpets and no stench of the knocked-out-aspirants’-souls -and-dreams. It was unlike any other coaching centre that I had imagined back home. It was brand new, gleaming with a bright-as-a-red-beacon luster. As if the ghosts of failure had just been exorcised, the place made me feel like I had already cleared my exam in the first attempt.There were aspirants all around, impeccably dressed with pens dangling on their finger tips, note books with shabbily scribbled notes tucked under their arm pits, a look of imperial philosophical misery in their eyes, each talking to an other person, in languages that I had definitely heard earlier, but in acronyms which made me fret. “Who’s taking GS-IV today?” and “I bet Go Cheng Leong is the best for Geomorphic cycles!” and “Weber, Follet, Mayo and NPA are my targets for tonight, You joining?”. As I said, my knowledge about the subjects, the phases, the difficulty levels, the plans and the schemes of this exam was a monumental, clean-shaven cavity that was so deep, it never echoed. Hearing such hyper-technical, ultra-geeky slang brought me back to where I was before I entered the beautiful foyer. I realized, though I secured entrance into the coaching class, perhaps the foyer was a tad too up-market for the suburban imbecile that I was. I, without a second thought, scampered off on to the main road.As I looked around, I found a brightly colored book store that was stacked to its ceiling with books. The owner was peeking out of the shop through a small void he had made by clearing out a few out of that seemingly endless reservoir of books of various shapes and sizes. He was looking out for customers and I walked gingerly towards him. He looked inviting and questioned me, with the standard Indian shopkeeper gesture. A sudden 3 degree tilt of the neck, upwards towards the sky, with a well synchronized upward twitch of the eyebrows, as he wiped off red colored, pan filled saliva from the edge of his mouth. I understood what he asked, “Kya chahiye bey?” (What do you want fellow?)As I explained my ignorance about the exam, he kept gazing at me, visually noting every single aspect of my appearance, perhaps working out the amount of revenue he could possibly generate from the dimwitted dunderhead who definitely looked and sounded from south of the Vindhyas. As he realized soon, my ignorance about the exam was so bottomlessly profound that he offered to help. I asked him immediately, “Kitne papers likhna hai?” (How many papers/exams do you need to pass in order to clear the exam?). A sudden burst of words, fully drenched in gulkhand, coconut flakes and betel leaves broke through the walls of his mouth and flew straight off my head, “prelims ka ek, GS ke char, optional ke char, ek essay, ek language paper, ek English paper, aur agar tab tak bach gaya to ek interview aur ek medical test. Kaisa lag raha hai?” (One paper of Prelims, 4 papers of General Studies, 4 papers of optional subjects, one paper each of an essay in English, an Indian Language, English Language and if you’re still alive, an interview and a medical test. How are you feeling brother?). I shat my pants, almost had a heart attack and the first thing I was reminded of was the job I quit.It took me a few days to reconcile with the fact that the UPSC is not an examination, it is a philosophy in itself. There is a certain kind of skill set that the bureaucracy seeks from aspirants. The shape and size of the beast is actually a means to filter the uninterested, the unmotivated and the not-so-persistent ones. As I came to terms with the reality of the examination, where I stand vis-a-vis the competition and the overall strength of the bowel system required to tackle this kind of beast, one question kept jabbing at me. What language, apart from English was I reasonably good at? My mother tongue was Telugu which I could barely write, reasonably read and perfectly understand. My first language of English in school was not an option. My third language of Sanskrit in school was too unblemished and austere to be used by me to survive a 3 hour badass scrutiny. The only option I had was Hindi. My second language in school, I always almost failed at it till my tenth grade, after which I didn’t get better at it, it just wasn’t a compulsory subject at school anymore. However, that was my only chance. I knew how to write, read and understand Hindi, albeit I was terrifically incoherent and unaccomplished at it.The compulsory Hindi paper would test you on seven different levels. First, your ability to write at length and in depth about a topic covering socio-political developmental oriented issues in India through a question on essay writing. Second, your ability to understand, analyze and critique an essay in Hindi through a question on comprehension, Third, your ability to read, understand and summarize an essay in Hindi through a question on Precis writing. Fourth, your ability to translate English into Hindi and vice versa through questions on Translated Essays. Fifth, an advanced understanding of Hindi through a question on translation and use of Hindi idioms. Sixth, a test of hindi grammar through a question on grammar correction. Seventh, a test of your vocabulary in Hindi through a question on synonyms and antonyms.Hallelujah!I had no options other than hindi though. Had the seven levels of the above test dived into the ocean of my understanding of hindi, second level would’ve hit Mariana Trench. Now the best part of me was I knew how godawfully I sucked at hindi. So, I definitely wasn’t fancying an easy way through this. The first person I went to was my neighbour in Old Rajinder Nagar. A guy from Uttar Pradesh who was appearing for the UPSC in English medium. So he had a fair bit of understanding of both the languages. I howled and bawled and wept for a few minutes. He consoled me and offered an advice. He said, “Let’s test where you stand”. He picked up a ball of tightly crumpled paper that was lying on the floor of the room. It had patches of sticky moisture and smelt like banana. The ink of the print on the paper was so cheap, it was coming of the letters that were printed on it. As I slowly opened it, I was like “Ah!, my bible.” The previous day’s hindi local newspaper that was used to pack a few bananas by the fruit cart owner. The hint was enough.For the next six months, there was not a single day where I had slept without my share of local burglaries, sewerage issues, matrimonial columns, erotic massage parlors, pest control services, obituaries, all in my now favorite second language, Hindi. I prepared a dictionary of hindi, containing about 600 high frequency words which were oft-repeated in news pertaining to socio-cultural, political and development related issues. These were the words that would make up the bulk of my essays. Every night, I made sure to memorize the words and their meanings. Every fortnight, I would pick a random topic from the previous question papers and would attempt to write an essay using the words from my dictionary. Every essay went to my friend, my messiah, for corrections and would come back in red circles around my words, mistakes in identifying gender of nouns and often blunders which would twist the entire meaning of a paragraph.This exercise perhaps covered all seven aspects of the examination to reasonable levels. So to answer the question, “Is it tough?” Perhaps it is. But there’s always a way around. And when I look back now, more than half a decade later, I would rate this experience highly. Being posted in the Capital of India where surviving without Hindi is a daily nightmare, what would I do without the shabby, moist newspaper that was used to pack bananas!Image Source: https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjXn-rp47bWAhVEq48KHWDFCn8QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fjamie-bruesehoff%2Fparents-kids-church_b_3909085.html&psig=AFQjCNEkz9PXQsORShDZsv2TDLbeGE9pIQ&ust=1506100476872718

The Scarcity MindsetBack in 2016, the last day of my second year of under-graduation was the most exciting day in my life.The reason being that the next morning we were to leave on a family vacation to Kerala and I was planning to stay in this really nice resort that was super aesthetic and served amazing food.Image source: Kerala tourism. We were going to go to this beautiful exact beautiful spot and visit several other places that were so picturesque and close to natureThe next morning I was super pumped and excited when I boarded the train from Chennai but while I was in the train I was scrolling through social media. It took less than a second to turn the excitement that I was experiencing into bitter disappointment and you know what ? That disappointment lasted throughout the trip.Guess why I was disappointed ? No I didn’t read an obituary, No there was no terrorist attack either in Kerala or anywhere in the world. No, my examination results were not released(in case you were wondering if my disappointment was due to bad marks).It was because I saw pictures of some of my friends in more exotic places like Italy, Amsterdam, London and every other fancy destination on Facebook and Instagram.I felt like Kerala wasn’t as exotic compared to those places(I myself am partly a Keralite, so no offence to other Keralites).So one problem with social media is that it makes you feel like you are living in scarcity. In reality, I was and I am living in abundance.Image source: Pinterest. Here is the comparison of the scarcity mindset versus the abundance mindset. The scarcity mindset leads one to become very self obsessed and thinking that the world only revolves around them instead of looking outside oneself. Whereas, the abundance mindset makes you happier as you feel like you are enough and what you have is enough. You look beyond yourself when you have the abundance mindset. But social media fosters the scarcity mindset.I have privileges that more than 90% of India’s population do not have such as being able to travel,stay in nice hotels, eat good food,sleep on a bed instead of a dirty floor or a footpath where there will be tons of flies walking on me, drink clean filtered water instead of tap water which is unhygienic,decent clothes to wear and millions of other things which would take me several days to list out here.But at that moment and for the rest of that week, I was living in scarcity internally.I know I am not alone in this because several of my friends also experience this. I have read several blogs and watched you-tube videos where people have spoken about their experiences with the scarcity mindset.Consumerist cultureI struggle with acne issues, but it is not too bad. I get mild to moderate acne which isn’t too concerning. In fact having acne doesn’t impair my ability to do things, affect my health or my ability to function in any way.But social media always shows pictures of men and women with spotlessly perfect skin such as this one for instance.Image source: PinterestI automatically began to feel that I wasn’t good enough to meet the standards of social acceptability so last year I ended up buying Mac Make-up products costing over Rs 5000( I am not comfortable wearing make-up on a regular basis but I felt like I needed it to meet standards of social acceptability).And social media told me that I need to go dairy-free to get rid of acne. Because this was during the time last year when this whole ‘dairy is bad’ thing had started. Obviously, I cannot live without milk so I ended up buying dairy free milk such as almond milk, soya milk etc. Honestly, 1 litre of these types of milk costed me more than my 2 month grocery bill.But did it get rid of my acne ? No it didn’t.I know I don’t need these things because I am not lactose intolerant(allergic to milk) and these products are made for people who are lactose intolerant. But I still bought it anyway? You know why ? Because I felt insecure about my skin even though there was nothing majorly wrong with it. In fact, my acne was barely visible unless someone placed a microscope of my face.So social media promotes this consumerist culture where it tells you that you need to spend more money to be happy. They trick you into thinking that what you have is not enough and you need more than what you have to be happy(such as in terms of material possessions like expensive food, expensive beauty products, expensive cars etc).It drives you to buy more than you need and spend more than you need.Now fortunately, I have come out of this consumerist mindset because it drains out one’s finances and time. I am on my way towards becoming a minimalist. Where I don’t keep more number of things than I need(still in the process,not there yet).Some other problems with social media include: lack of data privacy(it exposes too much information about individuals to the entire world which may be harmful), increase in cybercrime and cyberbullying and lack of security/safety(because too much information is exposed to the world and one may fall prey to people with malicious intentions).These social media apps are run by attention engineers who design them in a way that it increases addiction. Addiction decreases productivity and increases sleep deprivation.They make business out of our insecurities and lack of self satisfaction. They show us other people’s lives and make us feel that we are not enough, that we need to be like others to be happy and successful.It has basically led to a competition of who has the best life in the world.Image source: Pinterest. It is a competition for who has the best life in the world trophy which nobody is going to win ultimately because nobody is perfect.Last year, I took a one year social media detox where I completely quit using Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram(which were my most used social media apps).This detox was a blessing in disguise because it helped me re-evaluate and improve my relationship with social media. Now I use social media only for educational purposes and to grow in different areas of my life. This year it has brought a lot of positive changes in my life because I have created a positive relationship with social media. I control the amount of time I spend on it which is why I am not addicted to it.Also, I have written this answer straight from the heart and in a hurry so it isn’t very well organised and structured.

JENKINS VIA FLICKR // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0In the late 1800s, New England was in the midst of a vampire fad—but it was nothing like the Twilight saga vampires of today or Anne Rice's Vampire Coven. No, these New England vampire scares were rooted in a distorted perception of reality. Not so real that the supposed vampires were, in fact, vampires, but real enough considering that a disease was spreading and consuming humans.Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont were all suffering from outbreaks of tuberculosis, called consumption at the time.[1][1][1][1] Its cause was still unknown at the time, although people knew that once one family member got the disease, others were soon to follow.Consumption (also known as tuberculosis) was a leading cause of death in the 1800s; by all accounts, it was a gruesome way to die. As tuberculosis spread from the cities out into the countryside, people didn’t know what caused it or how to stop it. Tuberculosis was entrenched in the Americas even before the United States existed as a country. President George Washington himself likely fought the disease after contracting it from his brother—ironically, on a trip taken to Barbados in an attempt to treat Lawrence Washington’s illness.[2][2][2][2] Washington wasn’t alone, other notable American sufferers of tuberculosis included James Monroe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Washington Irving, John “Doc” Holliday, and Helen Hunt Jackson.[3][3][3][3]In some New England towns, such as Lynn, Massachusetts, it was the leading cause of death.[4][4][4][4] Entire families were wiped out, and there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to who caught the illness. In 1786, when health officials first began recording mortality rates connected to the deadly infection, Massachusetts alone recorded 300 consumption deaths for every 100,000 residents.[5][5][5][5] Between that year and 1800, tuberculosis killed 2 percent of New England’s population.[6][6][6][6] In many cases, communal living and extended families provided a prime breeding ground for the disease to spread throughout an entire family. It was estimated that anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of the American population had latent or active tuberculosis infections.[7][7][7][7]When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis DeathsIt was not a pleasant way to die. Symptoms included an extremely high fever, wasting,, night sweats,fatigue, sunken eyes and a persistent cough that sometimes produced white phlegm or foamy blood.[8][8][8][8] Occasionally, the cough turned into hemorrhaging. Those who caught it could not know if they would eventually recover, painfully waste away over the course of years, or die in a matter of months from the “galloping” form of the disease.[9][9][9][9] If they did recover, there was always the fear that the illness would return.Cholera, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, influenza, and measles were fast-burning epidemics that appeared, killed, and then went dormant as immunities kicked in.[10][10][10][10] Tuberculosis did not. It was an unrelenting fact of life in the 1800s. With no other explanations, people turned to the supernatural to understand the epidemic, and to offer hope of a cure.The popular theory of the time was that the first infected member of a family was believed to drain the life force of their loved ones through some spiritual connection that continued even after death.[11][11][11][11] Those who died from consumption were exhumed and examined. If their body seemed “too fresh”, it was assumed to be still feeding on the living.There were a number of ways proposed to stop this vampiric feeding. In parts of Massachusetts and Maine, bodies were simply flipped over and left alone facing the dirt, the simplest and least gruesome of practices.[12][12][12][12] In Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont, villagers burned the hearts and livers from bodies of suspected vampires.[13][13][13][13] Sometimes, this was combined with decapitation. Some even believed that inhaling the smoke and ash from the burned organs would cure their tuberculosis.[14][14][14][14]Mercy Brown – MercyMercy Lena Brown and her family lived in Exeter, Rhode Island.[15][15][15][15] The area was sparsely populated and farmers struggled to cultivate the hardscrabble land. Consumption, like many afflictions, was not entirely understood by residents, and was viewed with fear. In fact, many residents regarded consumption as a dark and mysterious thief in the night.Beginning in December 1882, the Brown family began to die from consumption in rapid succession. First was Mary Eliza, Mercy’s mother. The following year, Mercy’s sister, Mary Olive, died at the age of 20. Mary’s obituary described her suffering as having been so great that she was ready for the afterlife.[16][16][16][16] Next, Mercy’s brother Edwin, known as a big and husky man, began to wither away, but quickly left New England for Colorado Springs in the hopes that a better climate would cure him.[17][17][17][17]By the time Edwin returned a decade later, Mercy herself was on the threshold of death. She had been suffering from a more silent form of consumption for years—galloping consumption—named so because of its fast transition from invisible to fatal.[18][18][18][18] An attending doctor informed Mercy’s father George that medical care was useless. In January 1892, Mercy died, her simple obituary reading: “Miss Lena Brown, who has been suffering from consumption, died Sunday morning.”[19][19][19][19]When Edwin returned home after Mercy’s death, his health declined. His desperate father turned to an old folk belief: when members of the same family waste away from consumption, it could be because one of the deceased was draining the life force of their living relatives.[20][20][20][20] Desperate for an answer to cure his family's misfortune, patriarch George Brown was convinced by his neighbors that there might be something supernatural leeching their strength. Two centuries after the Salem Witch Trials, New Englanders continued to search for monsters in their midst. Townsfolk reported seeing Mercy walking about both in the cemetery and through fields. Her brother Edwin who had recently returned from a wellness center in Colorado and who was succumbing quickly to the disease reported that his sister Mercy was "siting on his chest" suffocating him.[21][21][21][21]Brown family plot at Chestnut Hill Cemetery (The Vampire Case of Mercy Brown - Locations of Lore)The neighbors asked George Brown’s permission to exhume the bodies of his wife and two daughters to check for fresh blood in their hearts. He agreed, and with village doctor Harold Metcalf and town undertaker George T. Cranston, with some neighbors in tow, the exhumations took place on the morning of March 17, 1892.[22][22][22][22]Accounts differ as to whether Mercy’s body had already been buried or if it rested in a crypt until the ground could thaw and undertakers could dig a grave.[23][23][23][23] After nearly 10 years, Mary Olive and Mary Eliza were almost entirely decomposed. But Mercy, had been interred for nine weeks in the cold New England weather, was almost perfectly preserved.[24][24][24][24] The vampire hunters of Exeter had found their target.Despite assertions from the doctor that this was fairly standard and not a sign of the supernatural, the community's course of action was clear. Dr. Metcalf explained in vain that the weather conditions would have kept her preserved and that her lungs were clearly showing symptoms of tuberculosis, but the people of Exeter were not going to be dissuaded.[25][25][25][25] Upon cutting open her heart, the doctor found decayed blood. An examination of her lungs indicated the dormant presence of consumption germs.The community believed that Mercy continued her reign of terror from beyond the grave. On the assumption that Mercy had been preying on her family since she was just a small girl, they removed her heart and liver, burned her heart to ashes on an adjacent rock, and fed the resulting ashes to Edwin.[26][26][26][26] But it was no use. Edwin Brown died two months later on May 2, 1892. The remainder of Mercy’s violated body was buried in Exeter’s Baptist Church Cemetery.[27][27][27][27]The rock adjacent to the Brown family plot, where it is theorized that Mercy's organs were burned (The Vampire Case of Mercy Brown - Locations of Lore)Maybe it seems strange that vampires were at the forefront of Exeter's mind. The reason is that Mercy Brown was really only the most recent of many similar vampire hunts during what was known as New England Vampire Panic — although they had largely died down in the late 19th century.[28][28][28][28] Newspapers were quick to connect these folk rituals with vampire legends, especially those of Eastern Europe. Vampire stories from all over were featured on the front pages of 19th-century New England[29][29][29][29] , describing similar stories in distant locations. Like the New Englanders, people in remote parts of Europe were exhuming bodies when people fell ill, and burning or planting stakes in those that seemed too full of life.One of the more remarkable cases is that of the Rev. Justus Forward and his daughter Mercy (no relation to Mercy Brown). In 1788, the minister had already lost three daughters to consumption; Mercy and another sister were fighting the illness.[30][30][30][30] As Mercy Forward traveled to a neighboring town with her father one day, she began to hemorrhage.Rev Justus Forward (1730-1814) - Find A Grave...Forward was reluctant to try opening the graves of his deceased family members, but allowed himself to be convinced, willing to do anything to save his daughter. His mother-in-law’s grave was opened first, without result.[31][31][31][31] However, he soon found a grave that fit the requirements. From a letter written by Forward:“Since I had begun to search, I concluded to search further ... and this morning opened the grave of my daughter ... who had died—the last of my three daughters—almost six years ago ... On opening the body, the lungs were not dissolved, but had blood in them, though not fresh, but clotted. The lungs did not appear as we would suppose they would in a body just dead, but far nearer a state of soundness than could be expected. The liver, I am told, was as sound as the lungs. We put the lungs and liver in a separate box, and buried it in the same grave, ten inches or a foot, above the coffin.”[32][32][32][32]The act didn’t save Mercy, but Forward’s other children seemed to recover. And the willingness of Forward and his family to attempt the ritual impartially helped to relieve fear in his community. He ultimately authorized a ritual that, in effect, reestablished social stability, essentially proclaiming that the dead were, indeed, dead once again.There were other cases as well. At the end of the 19th century, Daniel Ransom wrote in his journal about his brother Frederick, a Dartmouth College student who died of tuberculosis in 1817.[33][33][33][33] The boys’ father worried that Frederick would feed on the rest of the family, and had Frederick exhumed and his heart burned at a blacksmith’s forge.[34][34][34][34] The cure didn’t work, however, and Daniel Ransom lost his mother and three siblings over the next several years.New England 'Vampire' Was Likely a Farmer Named JohnIn the 1850s, Henry Ray of Jewett City, Connecticut exhumed the bodies of his brothers and cremated them when he, too, contracted tuberculosis.[35][35][35][35] In a nearby case, a grave belonging to someone known only as “J.B.” was broken into—possibly by family members or friends, who often conducted the rituals—and the skeletal remains were rearranged into a skull and crossbones shape.[36][36][36][36] Researchers speculate that it might have been done to stop J.B. from becoming a vampire, or because he was blamed for a living person’s illness.Henry David Thoreau wrote of another case in his journal in September 1859:“The savage in man is never quite eradicated. I have just read of a family in Vermont—who, several of its members having died of consumption, just burned the lungs & heart & liver of the last deceased, in order to prevent any more from having it.”[37][37][37][37]Isaac Johnson (A Double Exhumation in 1784 Connecticut)The vampire legend may have made its way into New England as an early version of the unproven “miracle cure” for tuberculosis. In 1784, a newspaper published a letter about a foreign “quack doctor” who had been disseminating an unusual cure for consumption.[38][38][38][38] According to the letter, when a third member of the Willington, Connecticut family of Isaac Johnson contracted the disease, the quack doctor advised him to dig up two family members who had already died of the illness.[39][39][39][39] The bodies were inspected for any sprouting plants, and the letter writer—who said he was an eyewitness—reported that sorrel was found. The doctor advised the Johnson family to burn the sorrel with the vital organs to remove sickness from his family, an idea the letter-writer called an imposture.[40][40][40][40]In 1882, Dr. Robert Koch identified the causative agent of tuberculosis.[41][41][41][41] The sad fact was that, until drug treatments became available in the 1940s, a person afflicted with the disease would have to basically just hope for the best. That could explain why people were so eager to find another explanation for their symptoms.Today, most people understand that tuberculosis is spread through the air, by inhaling the bacteria from those with active infections in their lungs or throats.[42][42][42][42] There are vaccines, though they’re rarely used in the U.S., and treatments for those who contract active tuberculosis infections.[43][43][43][43]In the 1800s, however, germ theory was only just beginning to gain supporters among the medical community. Through 1895, doctors continued to argue over the causes of tuberculosis and treatment mainly consisted of leaving large cities like New York and Boston, where the disease ran rampant, for places like California, Colorado and New Mexico where the climate was supposed to help ease the symptoms.[44][44][44][44] Until the rise of the sanatoria movement (basically, rest-oriented treatment centers) at the end of the 19th century, few medical treatments worked.[45][45][45][45] Even sanatoria only helped some patients.An 1864 French lithograph showing farmers exhuming a body believed to be a vampire (Did Vampires Really Stalk New England Farm Families? - New England Historical Society)Before Koch's discovery, though, supernatural explanations were even more common. One suspected vampire was "J.B." (from the letters spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin). He was one of several bodies found in a forgotten 1830s cemetery in Griswold, Connecticut in 1990.[46][46][46][46] But unlike the other remains found in that place, J.B. had been decapitated, his skull and thighbones placed atop his vertebrae and ribs.[47][47][47][47] Experts believe his corpse had been desecrated in an attempt to prevent him from returning from the dead.The rituals continued until Mercy Brown’s exhumation in 1892, 10 years after Koch discovered the bacteria that caused tuberculosis.[48][48][48][48] Eventually, germ theory began to take hold, and contagion was better understood. Infection rates began to go down as hygiene and nutrition improved. But until then, people were often willing to cling to any chance for themselves and their loved ones under the gnawing sense of hopelessness those with the disease lived with. In short, for the pragmatic Yankee, the bottom line was, ‘What do I have to do to stop this scourge?’[49][49][49][49] The ritual was a folk remedy rather than an elaborated detailed belief system.In death, Mercy Brown has achieved a a cult following of sorts, comprised of both sympathizers and vampire enthusiasts. She has been the inspiration for numerous writings, including H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shunned House, [50][50][50][50] and supposedly, for the character of Lucy in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.Footnotes[1] http://Sledzik, Paul S.; Nicholas Bellantoni (1994). "Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 94 (2): 269–274. [1] http://Sledzik, Paul S.; Nicholas Bellantoni (1994). "Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 94 (2): 269–274. [1] http://Sledzik, Paul S.; Nicholas Bellantoni (1994). "Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 94 (2): 269–274. [1] http://Sledzik, Paul S.; Nicholas Bellantoni (1994). "Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 94 (2): 269–274. [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/[3] A Gentle Death: Tuberculosis in 19th Century Concord[3] A Gentle Death: Tuberculosis in 19th Century Concord[3] A Gentle Death: Tuberculosis in 19th Century Concord[3] A Gentle Death: Tuberculosis in 19th Century Concord[4] Hospital for treatment of tuberculosis[4] Hospital for treatment of tuberculosis[4] Hospital for treatment of tuberculosis[4] Hospital for treatment of tuberculosis[5] The Forgotten Plague | American Experience | PBS[5] The Forgotten Plague | American Experience | PBS[5] The Forgotten Plague | American Experience | PBS[5] The Forgotten Plague | American Experience | PBS[6] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[6] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[6] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[6] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[7] Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics[7] Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics[7] Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics[7] Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics[8] What are the signs and symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) (consumption)?[8] What are the signs and symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) (consumption)?[8] What are the signs and symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) (consumption)?[8] What are the signs and symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) (consumption)?[9] Galloping consumption - PubMed[9] Galloping consumption - PubMed[9] Galloping consumption - PubMed[9] Galloping consumption - PubMed[10] Evaluating plague and smallpox as historical selective pressures for the CCR5-Δ32 HIV-resistance allele[10] Evaluating plague and smallpox as historical selective pressures for the CCR5-Δ32 HIV-resistance allele[10] Evaluating plague and smallpox as historical selective pressures for the CCR5-Δ32 HIV-resistance allele[10] Evaluating plague and smallpox as historical selective pressures for the CCR5-Δ32 HIV-resistance allele[11] The history of tuberculosis: from the first historical records to the isolation of Koch's bacillus[11] The history of tuberculosis: from the first historical records to the isolation of Koch's bacillus[11] The history of tuberculosis: from the first historical records to the isolation of Koch's bacillus[11] The history of tuberculosis: from the first historical records to the isolation of Koch's bacillus[12] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[12] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[12] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[12] When New Englanders Blamed Vampires for Tuberculosis Deaths[13] Google News Archive Search[13] Google News Archive Search[13] Google News Archive Search[13] Google News Archive Search[14] A haunted history: Vampires in Woodstock village & other tales[14] A haunted history: Vampires in Woodstock village & other tales[14] A haunted history: Vampires in Woodstock village & other tales[14] A haunted history: Vampires in Woodstock village & other tales[15] Mercy Brown vampire incident - Wikipedia[15] Mercy Brown vampire incident - Wikipedia[15] Mercy Brown vampire incident - Wikipedia[15] Mercy Brown vampire incident - Wikipedia[16] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[16] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[16] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[16] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[17] When A Mob Burned The Heart Of A Teenage "Vampire" Suspected Of Killing Her Family[17] When A Mob Burned The Heart Of A Teenage "Vampire" Suspected Of Killing Her Family[17] When A Mob Burned The Heart Of A Teenage "Vampire" Suspected Of Killing Her Family[17] When A Mob Burned The Heart Of A Teenage "Vampire" Suspected Of Killing Her Family[18] Vampires and the Tuberculous Family - Hektoen International[18] Vampires and the Tuberculous Family - Hektoen International[18] Vampires and the Tuberculous Family - Hektoen International[18] Vampires and the Tuberculous Family - Hektoen International[19] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[19] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[19] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[19] The story of Mercy Brown: New England’s last vampire[20] The Great New England Vampire Panic[20] The Great New England Vampire Panic[20] The Great New England Vampire Panic[20] The Great New England Vampire Panic[21] Mercy Lena Brown (1872-1892) - Find A Grave...[21] Mercy Lena Brown (1872-1892) - Find A Grave...[21] Mercy Lena Brown (1872-1892) - Find A Grave...[21] Mercy Lena Brown (1872-1892) - Find A Grave...[22] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[22] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[22] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[22] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[23] The Last American Vampire[23] The Last American Vampire[23] The Last American Vampire[23] The Last American Vampire[24] The Mercy Brown Vampire Story | Historic Mysteries[24] The Mercy Brown Vampire Story | Historic Mysteries[24] The Mercy Brown Vampire Story | Historic Mysteries[24] The Mercy Brown Vampire Story | Historic Mysteries[25] The Vampire Case of Mercy Brown - Locations of Lore[25] The Vampire Case of Mercy Brown - Locations of Lore[25] The Vampire Case of Mercy Brown - Locations of Lore[25] The Vampire Case of Mercy Brown - Locations of Lore[26] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[26] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[26] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[26] http://smallstatebighistory.com/vampires-in-exeter-the-gruesome-tale-of-mercy-l-and-edwin-a-brown/[27] https://archive.org/details/foodfordead00mich[27] https://archive.org/details/foodfordead00mich[27] https://archive.org/details/foodfordead00mich[27] https://archive.org/details/foodfordead00mich[28] New England's Vampire History | Legends and Hysteria[28] New England's Vampire History | Legends and Hysteria[28] New England's Vampire History | Legends and Hysteria[28] New England's Vampire History | Legends and Hysteria[29] The St. Charles herald. 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New York: Berghahn, 2019.[32] Justus Forward papers[32] Justus Forward papers[32] Justus Forward papers[32] Justus Forward papers[33] Then Again: When vampires were to blame for a deadly wasting disease - VTDigger[33] Then Again: When vampires were to blame for a deadly wasting disease - VTDigger[33] Then Again: When vampires were to blame for a deadly wasting disease - VTDigger[33] Then Again: When vampires were to blame for a deadly wasting disease - VTDigger[34] Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad[34] Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad[34] Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad[34] Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad[35] Jewett City Vampires[35] Jewett City Vampires[35] Jewett City Vampires[35] Jewett City Vampires[36] New England 'Vampire' Was Likely a Farmer Named John[36] New England 'Vampire' Was Likely a Farmer Named John[36] New England 'Vampire' Was Likely a Farmer Named John[36] New England 'Vampire' Was Likely a Farmer Named John[37] “The Savage in Man is Never Quite Eradicated“ - The New England Vampire Panic[37] “The Savage in Man is Never Quite Eradicated“ - The New England Vampire Panic[37] “The Savage in Man is Never Quite Eradicated“ - The New England Vampire Panic[37] “The Savage in Man is Never Quite Eradicated“ - The New England Vampire Panic[38] How Tuberculosis Inspired the 19th-Century New England Vampire Panic[38] How Tuberculosis Inspired the 19th-Century New England Vampire Panic[38] How Tuberculosis Inspired the 19th-Century New England Vampire Panic[38] How Tuberculosis Inspired the 19th-Century New England Vampire Panic[39] A Double Exhumation in 1784 Connecticut [39] A Double Exhumation in 1784 Connecticut [39] A Double Exhumation in 1784 Connecticut [39] A Double Exhumation in 1784 Connecticut [40] THE WILLINGTON VAMPIRES[40] THE WILLINGTON VAMPIRES[40] THE WILLINGTON VAMPIRES[40] THE WILLINGTON VAMPIRES[41] The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1905[41] The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1905[41] The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1905[41] The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1905[42] Understanding Tuberculosis: Perspectives and Experiences of the People of Sabah, East Malaysia[42] Understanding Tuberculosis: Perspectives and Experiences of the People of Sabah, East Malaysia[42] Understanding Tuberculosis: Perspectives and Experiences of the People of Sabah, East Malaysia[42] Understanding Tuberculosis: Perspectives and Experiences of the People of Sabah, East Malaysia[43] Vaccines | Basic TB Facts | TB | CDC[43] Vaccines | Basic TB Facts | TB | CDC[43] Vaccines | Basic TB Facts | TB | CDC[43] Vaccines | Basic TB Facts | TB | CDC[44] Early Research and Treatment of Tuberculosis in the 19th Century - American Lung Association Crusade[44] Early Research and Treatment of Tuberculosis in the 19th Century - American Lung Association Crusade[44] Early Research and Treatment of Tuberculosis in the 19th Century - American Lung Association Crusade[44] Early Research and Treatment of Tuberculosis in the 19th Century - American Lung Association Crusade[45] The history of tuberculosis: the social role of sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis in Italy between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th[45] The history of tuberculosis: the social role of sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis in Italy between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th[45] The history of tuberculosis: the social role of sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis in Italy between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th[45] The history of tuberculosis: the social role of sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis in Italy between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th[46] https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/10/nyregion/28-graves-giving-up-secrets-of-the-1700-s.html[46] https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/10/nyregion/28-graves-giving-up-secrets-of-the-1700-s.html[46] https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/10/nyregion/28-graves-giving-up-secrets-of-the-1700-s.html[46] https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/10/nyregion/28-graves-giving-up-secrets-of-the-1700-s.html[47] New London County, Conn.[47] New London County, Conn.[47] New London County, Conn.[47] New London County, Conn.[48] Robert Koch: Centenary of the Discovery of the Tubercle Bacillus, 1882[48] Robert Koch: Centenary of the Discovery of the Tubercle Bacillus, 1882[48] Robert Koch: Centenary of the Discovery of the Tubercle Bacillus, 1882[48] Robert Koch: Centenary of the Discovery of the Tubercle Bacillus, 1882[49] Tuberculosis: From an incurable scourge to a curable disease - journey over a millennium[49] Tuberculosis: From an incurable scourge to a curable disease - journey over a millennium[49] Tuberculosis: From an incurable scourge to a curable disease - journey over a millennium[49] Tuberculosis: From an incurable scourge to a curable disease - journey over a millennium[50] The Shunned House by H. 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