The Doctor and the Vampire: Fact, Folklore, and a Strange Investigation

In 1755, Dr. Gerard Van Swieten, a physician and scholar of medical history was sent to a small town in eastern Europe by Empress Maria Theresa of Hungary, to investigate a corpse. Apparently citizens believed sinister supernatural forces were at work. Dr. Gerard Van Swieten was ordered to investigate if vampires did indeed exist. This lecture will focus on Dr. Gerard Van Swieten’s education, his association with perhaps the most well known physician of the early 18th century, and most importantly, his investigation into vampires and “posthumous magic,” in a tiny hamlet of eastern Europe where folklore and magic were used to explain extraordinary phenomenon.