In medieval chronicles, there are often stories about the dead, whose bodies remained incorrupt for centuries. The pale pink skin and red lips indicated that the corpses had not been mummified. Opinions were divided: some believed that the incorruptible body was given only to the saints, while others suspected the incorruptible dead of vampirism.
Homeland of Dracula
Vampire legends have been around for centuries, the most famous of which is the famous Count Dracula. Historian Bob Curran put forward a version that the count's homeland was not Transylvania, but Ireland. According to the researcher, Bram Stoker wrote his novel "Dracula" from a story that took place in County Derry in the 5th century.
According to legend, the Irish king Abarth the Bloody was a ferocious dwarf. His subjects were so afraid of him that they did not dare to kill him, since the glory of a great sorcerer was firmly entrenched in him. Then they went to bow to another king - Katan, begging to relieve them of the tyrant. Katan himself did not like Abartakh, so he took the people's request to heart. They buried Abartakh, as was customary, standing. However, soon after his death, an evil dwarf began to appear in the villages and demand fresh blood of virgins, since only she could satisfy the hunger that tormented him. King Katan turned to the druids, who told him how to get rid of the misfortune. According to their instructions, Katan pierced Abartakh's heart with a stake made of yew tree, reburied the body upside down, and scattered thorns around the grave. After that, a huge stone block was rolled over the dwarf's grave. This alone allowed the locals to breathe easy.
Vampirism is a blood disease
Recently, new circumstances have emerged in the vampire case. Doctors say that the legends have a real foundation and vampirism is a consequence of blood diseases. For example, a manifestation of a rare disease called porphyria, during which the reproduction of certain hemoglobin proteins is disrupted. The non-protein part becomes toxic and begins to corrode the patient's subcutaneous tissue. Other symptoms of porphyria, such as photophobia, porphyrin deposits on the teeth, from which they turn reddish-brown, increased activity in the dark, bring patients closer to the appearance of vampires.
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The lack of erythrocytes and iron in the blood makes these people hypersensitive to sunlight: even a short stay in direct sunlight results in severe burns for them. Due to a change in the blood formula, the endocrine system suffers, which, in turn, leads to a change in the appearance of patients: the skin becomes pale, the hair resembles animal hair, the nails acquire an unusual color and structure.
To complete the picture, patients with porphyria could not eat garlic, since the sulfonic acid contained in garlic increases the damage to the subcutaneous tissue. This terrible disease could also be caused artificially, with the help of some poisons. It was believed that porphyria was especially common in Transylvania, where closely related marriages were concluded. But does this mean that a person with unhealthy blood will certainly experience an irresistible desire to suck the blood of other people to improve his own? It is known that drinking raw blood is not very good for your health. Blood is very high in calories due to its high content of proteins and iron, while it is difficult for the pancreas to break down and in its raw form is very harmful to the kidneys. This means that a patient with a blood disease cannot improve his own blood by regularly consuming someone else's.
Würzburg vampire
Are real vampires known to stories? In the 30s of the XIX century, the following story took place in the Bavarian city of Würzburg. Dr. Heinrich Spatz, shortly before the outbreak of the Napoleonic wars, graduated from the University of Prague and entered the Austrian army as a military doctor. In 1818 he settled in Würzburg with his young wife.
The doctor was a wealthy man, led an active social life, and soon became one of the most fashionable doctors in the city. He did charity work, worked in a hospital for the poor, wrote several famous works on military field surgery and the treatment of certain infectious diseases. However, in 1831, Heinrich Spatz unexpectedly sold his property and left for the Czech Republic at the invitation of the University of Prague. A month after his departure, the Würzburg police were contacted by two young doctors, former assistants of Dr. Spatz, who claimed that the Spatz spouses were … vampires!
This could be considered a stupid joke, but the young people pointed to the disappearance of a certain Joachim Faber. A retired soldier with a one-armed handicap, Faber served as a gatekeeper at the hospital for the poor where Dr. Spatz worked. And he really disappeared a year before the events described. The police searched the doctor's former mansion and found the remains of at least 18 people in the basement! A skeleton without an arm with traces of surgical amputation was also found there. These bones were identified by forensic doctors as the remains of the missing Joachim Faber. It was not possible to identify the rest of the skeletons - they were buried naked. Then many remembered that Dr. Spatz often undertook to arrange the fate of his poor patients, as a rule, beggar vagrants. They recalled other oddities from the doctor's life: despite the fact that Spatz's mansion was very large,however, absolutely all the servants were visiting. None of the servants stayed in the house overnight …
The authorities sent a request to Prague regarding Dr. Spatz and received an answer: such one did not appear at the Prague University and no one sent him any invitation. Along the way, it turned out that a surgeon named Heinrich Spatz had never been listed in the Austrian army. The investigation has reached a dead end.
And six months later, one of the informers committed suicide. Shortly before his death, he left home, leaving his wife and son, rented a small apartment in a poor suburb of Nuremberg, broke all ties with relatives and friends. He became afraid of sunlight, and spent whole days in a room with closed shutters. He turned pale, became terribly thin and ate only raw pork blood, which he bought from the butcher. As a result of such a diet, he began to suffer from terrible stomach pains, but he refused to be treated and to take normal food, and after a short time he hanged himself on the ceiling beam.
The second informer survived the first by only six months: he killed his little nephew and tried to drink his blood. He was seen by the baby's nanny, who, in a state of passion, hit the bloodsucker several times with a fireplace poker. The child's father cost a lot of money to hush up this wild story.
Scientists have long debated the identity of Heinrich Spatz. Some considered him a vampire, others a member of a Satanist sect practicing human sacrifice, and others an illegal pathologist: at that time, the dissection of corpses was considered a serious crime. And the informers simply fanatically believed that their former patron was a vampire, and became obsessed with this idea …
In different states there was a huge number of crimes associated with vampirism. Modern psychologists distinguish a disorder called Renfield's syndrome, or clinical vampirism, after Stoker's assistant Dracula. With this disease, the patient is obsessed with the thirst for drinking the blood of people or animals. The history of forensic science knows several murderers who performed vampire rituals on their victims. Serial killer maniacs Peter Curten, who was called the German Jack the Ripper, and Richard Trenton Chase were called vampires in the tabloid press, because it was known that they really drank the blood of their victims. Tellingly, most of the detained vampires did not have any blood diseases. From which we can conclude that vampirism is a mental pathology.
M. Stigneeva