Vampire by Edvard Munch (1893). • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS During the 18 th and 19 th century, an epidemic of vampirism spreads in Europe. As Rousseau stated in 1762:“If there is any attested history in the world, it is that of vampires; nothing is missing; minutes, certificates from notables, surgeons, priests, magistrates […]. Of course, there have always been skeptics, like Rousseau himself or the writer Charles Nodier, who wondered in 1822 how rational people could believe “in the most absurd” of “all popular errors”. However, many people believed in vampires and went so far as to testify that they had seen them. The craze for vampires comes mainly from the Benedictine Augustin Calmet, author in 1751 of a Treatise on the apparitions of spirits and on vampires or ghosts , in which he compiles numerous cases of vampirism. Calmet defines vampires as “the dead […] who come out of their tombs and come to worry the living, suck their blood, appear to them, make a racket at their doors and in their houses, and finally often cause their death. […] You only get rid of their infestations by digging them up, cutting off their heads, impaling them or burning them, or piercing their hearts. One of the first signs indicating that a dead person has turned into a vampire is the rotting of the corpse, i.e. the fact that it does not rot:"When you pull them out of the ground, you find their whole bodies, their crimson, fluid blood, and their supple, manageable limbs,” continues Calmet. Saponified bodies However, the possible preservation of a body results from two well-known phenomena:mummification, which occurs in a dry and hot environment, and saponification, which occurs when the corpse is in a cold and humid environment, usual in Europe. central and eastern. During the process of saponification, the fatty acids are transformed into a waxy substance similar to soap, which coats the corpse and prevents putrefaction. A body in this state certainly does not have the flexibility of a living human body, but it retains a certain flexibility. Thus, the corpses described in vampiric treatises were most likely saponified. Other signs to identify a vampire are the bloodstains that some corpses show when they are buried. Calmet explains it thus:"They come to suck the blood [...] in such great abundance, that sometimes it comes out through their mouths, through their noses and mainly through their ears, and sometimes the corpse swims in its blood spilled in its coffin. […] And in which we still find signs of life, the blood [is] liquid. » “They come to suck the blood […] in such great abundance, that sometimes it comes out of their mouths, through their noses and mainly through their ears, and sometimes the corpse swims in its blood spilled in its coffin. » Another treatise explains that “when their coffins were opened…they were found lying in pools of blood, for the vampires gorge themselves so much that they could no longer keep all the blood they had consumed.” How long the blood of a corpse remains fluid depends mainly on the environmental conditions in which it is kept. Under ideal conditions with low temperatures, the blood can remain fluid for three or four days, or even longer. If the corpses are dug up within this timeframe on suspicion or to find clues of vampirism, then it is possible that they still have "blood in their veins". In any case, the delay in coagulation can be explained by many reasons. When one evokes corpses stained or "swimming" in blood (which is certainly exaggerated), there is every reason to think of probable haemorrhages post mortem , which occurred while the blood was still fluid. A shock during the transfer of the body to the cemetery or during the lowering of the coffin into the grave could cause trauma causing more or less significant blood flow from the nose or mouth. Also, depending on the cause of death, the concentration of anticoagulants in cadaver plasma may be higher. Thus, blood could spurt from the nose or mouth in a natural way without it necessarily being vampirism, as popular belief would have it. The cry of the heart Also according to this belief, to put an end to the appearances of supposed vampires, they must be dug up and a stake driven into their bodies. It was then that they would utter a terrible cry. Calmet's treatise describes one such case, when the vampire hunter "pushed, according to custom, into the heart...a very sharp stake, which was passed through the [vampire's] body from side to side, which made him […] utter a terrible cry, as if he were alive”. This is considered another proof that vampires are alive and well and only really die after being pierced. Nevertheless, this phenomenon can again be explained by a natural cause. Indeed, when the stake is inserted, the air trapped in the rib cage is expelled quickly and violently, and can produce a sound passing through the throat. This semblance of howling was interpreted by those present at the exhumation as a cry of pain from the corpse. Another phenomenon designating "undoubtedly" a vampire is that of the dead "whose beards, hair and nails grow". In a living being, hair and nails grow thanks to the multiplication of cells and their nourishment by blood flow. Naturally, when a person dies, these cells stop being nourished, and hair and nails stop growing. However, an optical illusion can give a different impression. In the case of hair, after death, the skin dries out, becomes dehydrated and retracts, uncovering the roots. In addition, the hair tends to fall back, which gives the impression that it has grown. The same phenomenon occurs with the fingernails which, when retracting the tissues of the corpse, appear longer than they really are. The study of ancient cases of vampirism highlights an accurate description of the corpses and reveals that many of the phenomena observed actually took place post mortem. However, the explanations given for these phenomena are not scientific. The belief in vampires was therefore largely the result of ignorance of the decomposition of bodies and the cause of natural phenomena that we now know how to explain in a scientific and detailed way. Find out more The Awakening of the Vampires. Blood for blood, by Jean Marigny, Gallimard, 2010. Horrifying stories In his treatise, Augustin Calmet describes episodes like the one that took place in Kisilova (Serbia) in 1720. Villagers claim to have seen a man, who died weeks earlier, move around the village and throw himself on the necks of several people to suck their blood. With the governor's permission, they dig up the body, drive a stake through its heart, and then burn it. Medieval leeches Augustin Calmet believed that vampires came from Eastern Europe. According to legend, their name means "leech" in Slavic. This belief is ancient, as evidenced by medieval skeletons discovered with iron stakes driven into the heart area. Sulfur and Wisps In addition to biological phenomena, other facts have contributed to the spread of the myth of vampires. Thus the smell of sulfur that would emanate from their bodies, or the will-o'-the-wisps, those lights that some would have seen on their graves. Added to this are epidemics and natural disasters, often attributed to these evil beings and which push villagers to organize search parties in cemeteries to find suspicious corpses. How to finish with a vampire? Fear of vampires causes people to seek ways to protect themselves from their attacks. To ward them off, peasants in Eastern Europe hang garlic around their necks and smear children and cattle with it. But the most effective solution – according to tradition – is to drive a stake through the hearts of the corpses, cut off their heads and burn their remains.
