Vampyres: Legend, Cases and Theories
Dr. Herbert Mayo, senior surgeon at Middlesex Hospital in 1851, wrote about vampyre attacks and epidemics. He looked for a link between superstitious auto-suggestion and the physical symptoms. He proposed that those who were most vulnerable and fell into the death trance had irritable and weak nervous systems. They are apt to have delusions of terror and to dream or believe that they have seen the last victim of the epidemic.
The dream or delusion is likely to recur. These people talk to others, who, like themselves, succumb to the death trance. Appetite is lost and anemia occurs. Mass hysteria, like that of Salem and its witch hunts, is created.
All properly documented vampyre attack cases have one thing in common. The attack is done by a known vampyre. Usually, it begins with a kiss on the person's neck, then it turns into a bite where the blood is sucked. Rarely was pain reported. Most victims fell into a state of euphoria.
It is an established fact that people can die from psychological causes. In societies that believe in sorcery, people do die when they think they have been cursed when there is nothing physically wrong with them to cause death.
There is a "vampire" psychosis in which people believe that they are vampires and exhibit this type of behavior, although this is rare. There is also pica, which is the craving for substances that are not normally ingested, which is also rare.
Then, there are the psychopathic thrill seekers who will indulge in this behavior for the momentary "high" it brings.
But, the mystery is that, when the corpses have been exhumed from their graves, they do look like one who has recently died and the blood in their bodies evidences this....
Ronay, Gabriel, The Truth About Dracula. ISBN: 0-8128-1750-8
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