Vampire heartbeat

Does a vampire have a heartbeat?

Some sources "say that since [the vampire is] dead, he has problems with blood circulation" (Ramsland 224). Certainly, a dead creature would have circulatory problems. Death would inhibit the signal from the brain to the heart in order to keep it pumping in a regular fashion. Furthermore, after death the blood would congeal and "the veins" would "become clogged, preventing the circulation of blood" throughout the body (Barber 43).

If there is no circulation, then "how does the body of the creature function--when it ingests blood, is that blood circulated? In other words, does its undead heart beat?" (Konstantinos 99).

A vampire is a creature that moves. Since there is the capability to move, there is no reason to believe that the heart would not beat. "Certainly,...one of the reasons staking was first implemented" as a method of vampire disposal was because "driving a stake through the organ and leaving it there would obviously disrupt the heart's ability to beat" (Konstantinos 99).

It is also worth considering that "the physical vampire of folklore was not pale. In fact, most documents indicate that the skin color of an undead typically had a reddish tinge, as if the blood it ingested infused every cell of its body" (Konstantinos 4). The blood would not move throughout he body without some type of circulatory system. Since a circulatory system functions, and the vampire is capable of movement, there is no reason to believe that the heart of a vampire is still.

Tsedesutyun,
Ana

Sources:
Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial, and Death
Konstantinos. Vampires.
Lyle, DP. The Lab: Articles: Timely Death. http://www.dplylemd.com/Articles/timelydeath.html
Ramsland, Katherin M. The Science of Vampires