Vampire venom and infection

Reports of vampire venom are prolific, and it is easy to see why. Like the fanged snake, vampires are reported to inject a poison or infection into their victims. The attributes of the poison vary between accounts from anesthetic capabilities to fatal results.

Some sources claim that, when the "vampire poison gets into your blood, it numbs you, knocks you out" (Massy 521). The effects of vampire poison resemble that of snake venom and are "partly local, partly central. The blood is also deeply affected" (Sollmann 421). "Snakes that inject venom use modified salivary glands. Venom is a modified form of saliva and probably evolved to aid in chemical digestion" (Emedicine). If vampires do inject some form of venom, it is likely that it would server the same purpose as snake venom--after all, both creatures are natural predators.

However, venom is not the only poison associated with vampires. "We find in countless examples of vampire fiction drawing on metaphors of infection" (Day 32). Some sources indicate that the vampires "inject thousands of tiny parasites" into the bloodstream (Feehan 298). According to Montague Summers,"the subsequent consequences" of a vampire bite are "the terrible anemia and Hemoplegia which may result in death followed by the vampire infection" (Summers 177).

The notion of an infectious vampire bite is closely tied with the idea of reproduction via the bite. The idea is that "unless the most drastic and immediate remedies are applied, a person who is attacked by a vampire and whose blood has been sucked will become a vampire in turn imbued with a craving to pass on the horrible pollution" (Summers 168).

"Various sources of fear represented by the late nineteenth-century vampire and its best known manifestation in Dracula- fear of degeneration, fear of infection," and "anxiety about ...preservation" (Day 68). These mortal worries are inescapable, and aggravated by the religious powers. "It could well be argued that the Church spread the vampire-infection" (Masters 187). If the threat of excommunication did not keep parishioners inline, then perhaps the fright of becoming a vampire would.

In our blog article on Vampire Reproduction the idea of spreading vampirism through a simple bite was refuted. If a vampire bite was enough to create a new vampire, then a "child" would be made every time a vampire fed. Since the world is not overpopulated by vampires (although it may seem so if you browse the young adult section of a bookstore), this is most likely not the method of reproduction.

However, we cannot disprove the existence of poison or infection in the vampire's bite. As mentioned in the previous blog post, a vampire bite can certainly transmit any blood-born illness such as malaria or HIV.

Neither can we empirically refute vampire venom. Yet, when we look at venomous snakes we see that "envenomation is completely voluntary," and "all venomous snakes are capable of biting without injecting venom into their victim" (Gold 347). It is logical to assume that venomous vampires possess the same capability. Furthermore, there are plenty of snakes that do not inject venom with their bite. It is possible that the bite of a vampire is innocuous with the exception of its blood-letting capability, yet infection through a vampire bite has been the source of great fear.

Unfortunately, "Even to-day (1929) in certain quarters of the world, in remoter districts of Europe itself, Transylvania, Slavonia, the isles and mountains of Greece, the peasant will take the law into his own hands and utterly destroy the carrion who--as it is yet firmly believed--at night will issue from his unhallowed grave to spread the infection of vampirism throughout the countryside" (Summers xxi). Furthermore, animals suspected "of vampire infection" were "exhumed, chopped into pieces, and burned" (Bunson 303). "It seems that the most dangerous infection...is not vampirism but the infectiousness of violence itself" (Day 198).

Nasvidenje,
Ana

Sources:

• Banks, L.A. The Wicked.
• Bunson, Matthew. The Vampire Encyclopedia.
• Day, Peter. Vampires.
• EMedicinehealth.com http://www.emedicinehealth.com/snakebite/article_em.htm Snake Bite
• Feehan, Christine. Dark Possession.
• Gold, Barry S.; Richard C. Dart, Robert A. Barish (1 April 2002). "Bites of venomous snakes". The New England Journal of Medicine 347 (5): 347–56. ISSN 00284793. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/347/5/347?ijkey=/Romzox5/Yq3A&keytype=ref&siteid=nejm. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
• Massy, Brandon. Dark Corner.
• Masters, Anthony. The natural history of the vampire.
• Sollmann, Torald Hermann. A Manual of pharmacology and its applications to therapeutics and toxicology.
• Summers, Montague. The vampire his kith and kin.

Extraction of blood and vampires

"In most fiction about vampires,...the vampire looms over his victim dramatically, then bites into her neck to such her blood" (Barber 32). The victim wilts and the vampire rears his head to expose his bloody mouth. While very impressive, this display is something that rarely departs from the arena of horror films. This blog entry will discuss the manner in which vampires extract blood from the supplier (who we will identify as 'victim' or 'donor'), and refute some common notions.

"When vampires and revenants in folklore suck blood" they "bite their victim somewhere on the thorax. Among the Kashubes, it is reported that they choose the area of the left breast; among the Russians, they leave a small wound in the area of the heart" (32). "Cremene adds that...the bite is never at the jugular but usually over the heart, the blood of which is in demand" (Waltje 47). The thorax (the upper torso) has a rich supply of blood, and is relatively easy to access. The problem with the thorax is that there are few arteries and veins near the surface. Depending on the victim, the vampire might bite into muscle or breast tissue. The lack of exposed veins does not deter the vampire. In fact, occasionally, "the victim is bitten between the eyes" in folklore (Barber 33).

The reason why most vampires choose not to bite the jugular is because in doing so they loose control over speed of discharge and blood loss. With the jugular there is "the chance of a mess, since the high-pressure arteries spurt when punctured" (Ramsland 33). The vampire may choose instead to bite a small vein, as "low-pressure veins are less likely" to gush (33). This is purely a practicality. A bite at the jugular will cause significant blood loss, and that is a waste according to all parties. A more gradual flow of blood is easier to control.

It is not conscripted that the vampire kills the victim while feeding. Furthermore, "the vampire's bite needs to neither spread vampirism nor be unpleasant" (Love 265). Because the death of the victim is not completely necessary, the idea of "Pomme de Sang" developed (Hamilton 265). In other words, a vampire does not need to kill the victim. If the vampire chooses, he/she can survive by taking small amounts of blood from many willing donors.

When many victims/donors are involved, it is important to note that infectious diseases may spread. Many communicable diseases can be spread through blood. Even if the vampire is not affected, one donor may become infected by a disease from another donor, transmitted through the vampire. Examples of these diseases include HIV and Malaria.

While most people think that malaria can only be spread via mosquito bite, there are other methods of transmission. Most common methods of malaria transmission (other than through the mosquito) are congenital, blood transfusion, and needle stick injury. Just as HIV can be transmitted on a object such as a needle, so can malaria. It follows that a bite from a vampire may transmit malaria between victims and donors. Furthermore, "following an attack of malaria, the donor may remain infective for years" (Malaria).

Alweda,
Ana

Infectious Bite strongly suggests that no humans engage in vampiric activities, and that extreme caution be used when handling blood.

For more information on the infectious disease of malaria, please visit our Malaria Blog.

Sources:
Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial and Death.
Hamilton, Laurell K. Danse Macabre.
Love, Kathy. Fangs for the Memories.
Malaria Site: Transmission of Malaria. 5 July 2009.
Ramsland, Katherine M. The Science of Vampires.
Waltje, Jorg. Blood obsession: vampires, serial murder, and the popular imagination.

Turning a human into a vampire

It's a question riddled with problems, and it's one I've been asked several times this week.
How can I become a vampire?

The most often repeated answer is: You can't.
I imagine that is not the answer for which you search, so I will draw out some explanations in this blog entry. Anyway, that answer is not precisely true in every case.

Again, we will turn first to Bram Stoker's Dracula. "Evolutionary theory in Dracula is a nineteenth-century jumble of social Darwinisim, speciation and a pre-Darwinian Lamarckism" where an individual can "obtain prolonged life through 'the blood'" (Pue 235). Much of this jumbled theory has continued into the modern ideas of vampire creation, but little can be proven or supported with research or scientific fact.

Nevertheless, over the centuries, many methods of making a vampire have been developed in folklore and fiction. The ways that a vampire is created can be broken down into three sections: the individual becomes a vampire after death, the individual becomes a vampire because of his/her evil deeds, the individual is a vampire at birth.

The most popular method in modern time is the notion of an infected bite. In other words, a vampire bites a mortal human thereby 'infecting' the human with whatever attribute causes vampirism. In Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, a vampire bite releases venom into the blood stream, and that venom will eventually affect change within the victim. The specifics of this change vary by account. In the novel Bite, "It takes three bites to become a vampire,...and they all have to be from the same vampire. You can't become one in a single night, and you can't become one if you're just being casual with more than one" (Hamilton 5). Explained the most simply, the vampire's " bite grants, at least to some, eternal life, enhanced strength and sexualised beauty" (Pue 235). "While this scenario has a wealth of problems attached to it, notably that the earth would soon be choked with vampires, it does imbue the vampire with an interesting infectiousness and an inability to control its "procreative" powers" (Ramsland 90). Since the world is not over-populated with vampires, the claim of an infectious bite is clearly not true.

To accommodate the issue of scarcity of vampires, some authors claim that a simple bite is not enough. The 'victim' must accept the gift of the vampiric blood in order to transform into a new creature. This idea echoes the traditions of Christianity--it is only by receiving the blood, and thereby willingly dying to the world, that the human enters a new type of existence. The main advocate of this method of transformation is Anne Rice. In her Vampire Chronicles, a new blood drinker is made by draining a living human of blood "to the very threshold of death", and then the dying mortal must drink the blood of the vampire in order to survive and pass into immortal existence (Rice. Vampire 19). Marius says to his fledgling, Amadeo: "You'll die now to live forever, as I take your blood and give it back to you. I won't let you slip away." (Rice. Blood 302). This idea of blood exchange, also carries with it the idea of infected or magical blood. In order for this to work, the "vampire substance", whether it be disease or magic, must "be able to outdistance the mortal immune system" and be able to disable or change the "genetic process" (Ramsland 94). It is logical. Many diseases overpower the human immune system, but this idea leads to the association of vampirism with diseases such as Rabies, Porphyria, and other disease that produce life-altering side-effects. We will discuss the association of vampirism with disease in a later blog entry.

"It is true, however, that in folklore as well as in fiction, the vampire's bite tends to cause the victim to become a vampire as well" (Barber 32). However, folklore also provides many other alternate methods of creating a vampire including: a supernatural curse, an unusual death, a variety of sin, and spirit possession. Alan Dundes sums up the various methods that Romanians believe a vampire is made in his book The Vampire.

The causes of vampirism are various. Roumanians think that a man born with a caul [remnant of the amniotic sac] becomes a vampire within six weeks after his death; similarly people who were bad and had done evil deeds in their lifetime. When a child dies before it is baptized, it becomes a vampire at seven years of age...Men who swear falsely for money become vampires six months after death...If a vampire casts its eye on a pregnant woman, and she is not disenchanted, her child will be a vampire. If a pregnant woman does not eat salt, her child will be a vampire...When there are seven children of the same sex, the seventh will have a little tail and be a vampire

Furthermore, "a dead man becomes a vampire, if a cat jumps over him, if a man steps over him, or even if the shadow of a man falls over him" (Dundes 20). This idea is also reported in cases of Asian vampires, where any animal (but particularly a dog) can instigate the change by jumping over a dead body. To all educated, modern individuals it is clear that these "methods" are merely superstitions created by a populace that feared vampires and all that strayed from the norm.

In the modern world, there are still some who claim a human can be turned into a vampire. Some subcultures of vampires engage in initiation acts, that may resemble one or more of the processes of 'turning' a human into a vampire as described in fiction or folklore. While the participants may feel differently because of these initiation acts, no speciation (the process of one species separating into two) occurs. Humans still have human DNA after these rituals. They are still affected by human diseases, and they are still bound by physical requirements of the human body.

So, can a human turn into a vampire? "The majority of the vampire community believe it is impossible for anyone to be turned...Many believe we are born vampires and gradually become aware of our natures" (Voices of the Vampire Community). Others insist on the exchange of blood is the path to immortality. The truth is a closely guarded secret.

Erteng körüshkönchö,
Ana


Sources:
Banks, L.A. The Awakening.
Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial, and Death.
Dundes, Alan. The Vampire. P 20
Hamilton, Laurell K. Charlaine Harris, Angela Knight, Mary Janice Davidson, Vickie Taylor. Bite.
Pue, W. Wesley, David Sugarman. Lawyers and vampires.
Ramsland, Katherine M. The Science of Vampires.
Rice, Anne. Blood & Gold.
Rice, Anne. Interview with a vampire.