5. Vampirism-e

Nevertheless, their appearance is that of a person sinking from repeated hemorrhages. When vampirism is suspected the thing to do is to go over that person’s body inch by inch with a powerful magnifying glass, and the search will probably be rewarded by the discovery of numerous minute punctures, so minute that they are not discovered by an examination with the naked eye unless they reveal themselves by becoming infected and suppurating, when they are usually mistaken for insect bites. They are bites right enough, but not those of an insect. The places to look for them are around the neck, especially under the ears; down the inner surface of the forearms; on the lobes of the ears; about the tips of the toes and, in a woman, upon the breasts. It is said that a person with vampire tendencies develops abnormally long and sharp canine teeth, and I have myself seen one such case, and a curious sight it was. The two canine teeth, the pair that come between the incisors and the double teeth, were half as long again as the others, and terminated in points of needle-like sharpness. True vampirism in Western Europe appears to be rare, but Z. was of the opinion that many obscure cases of tropical debility in which anemia played a prominent part, might be attributed to this cause.