Editing Vampire (section)

=== Pathology ===
==== Decomposition ====
Author Paul Barber stated that belief in vampires resulted from people of [[pre-industrial societies]] attempting to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of death and decomposition.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=1–4}} People sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. Rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all or to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/staking_claims_the_vampires_of_folklore_and_fiction/|title=Staking Claims: The Vampires of Folklore and Fiction|last=Barber|first=Paul|date=March–April 1996|journal=[[Skeptical Inquirer]]|access-date=29 June 2015|volume=20|issue=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701000450/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/staking_claims_the_vampires_of_folklore_and_fiction/|archive-date=1 July 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look "plump", "well-fed", and "ruddy"—changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the [[Arnold Paole|Arnold Paole case]], an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbours to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=117}} The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=114–115}} Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=105}} The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of [[flatulence]] when they passed through the anus. The official reporting on the [[Petar Blagojevich]] case speaks of "other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect".{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=119}} After death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Blagojevich case—the [[dermis]] and [[Nail bed (anatomy)|nail beds]] emerging underneath were interpreted as "new skin" and "new nails".{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=119}}

==== Premature burial ====
Vampire legends may have also been influenced by individuals being [[buried alive]] because of shortcomings in the medical knowledge of the time. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been "feeding".{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=48–49}} A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=128}}  Another likely cause of disordered tombs is [[grave robbery]].{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=137–138}}

==== Disease ====
Folkloric vampirism has been associated with clusters of deaths from unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community.<ref name=sledzik/> The epidemic allusion is obvious in the classical cases of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of [[Mercy Brown]] and in the vampire beliefs of New England generally, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism. As with the pneumonic form of [[bubonic plague]], it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=115}}

In 1985, biochemist [[David Dolphin]] proposed a link between the rare blood disorder [[porphyria]] and vampire folklore. Noting that the condition is treated by intravenous [[haem]], he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstream. Thus vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and alleviate their symptoms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cox |first1=Ann M. |title=Porphyria and vampirism: another myth in the making |journal=Postgraduate Medical Journal |date=1995 |volume=71 |issue=841 |pages=643–644 |doi=10.1136/pgmj.71.841.643-a|pmid=7494765 |pmc=2398345 |s2cid=29495879 }}</ref>

The theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease. Furthermore, Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folklore, many of whom were not noted to drink blood.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=100}}  Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely.<ref>{{cite web|last=Adams|first=Cecil|title=Did vampires suffer from the disease porphyria—or not?|website=The Straight Dope|publisher=Chicago Reader|date=7 May 1999|access-date=25 December 2007|url=http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990507.html|archive-date=20 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720115852/http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990507.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention<ref>{{Cite news|last=Pierach|first=Claus A.|title=Vampire Label Unfair To Porphyria Sufferers|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 June 1985|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E4D71239F930A25755C0A963948260|access-date=25 December 2007|archive-date=21 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421062059/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E4D71239F930A25755C0A963948260|url-status=live}}</ref> and entered popular modern folklore.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kujtan|first=Peter W.|title=Porphyria: The Vampire Disease|publisher=The Mississauga News online|date=29 October 2005|url=http://www.bydewey.com/drkporphyria.html|access-date=9 November 2009|archive-date=24 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124132104/https://www.bydewey.com/drkporphyria.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist, examined the possible link of rabies with vampire folklore. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. It can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (thus becoming nocturnal) and [[hypersexuality]]. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). [[Wolves]] and [[bat]]s, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gómez-Alonso|first=Juan|year=1998|title=Rabies: a possible explanation for the vampire legend|journal=Neurology|volume=51|issue=3|pages=856–59|pmid=9748039|doi=10.1212/WNL.51.3.856|s2cid=219202098}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=24 September 1998|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/178623.stm|title=Rabies-The Vampire's Kiss|work=BBC News|access-date=18 March 2007|archive-date=17 March 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060317102944/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/178623.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>