WEBVTT - Vampire Clinic, Part 1 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:14.160 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.000 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.279 And of course, since it's October, we're still in our 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:25.080 month long celebration of monster science, horror science, spooky science 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.400 all month long, and today we're bringing you another entry. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.920 This time we're gonna be taking a visit to the 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.239 vampire clinic. That's right. We have all of these various 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.800 vampire patients coming in, uh, family members bringing them in 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.000 and uh, you know, straight jackets, caskets, what have you, 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.919 all of them with a seemingly insatiable appetite for blood. 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.840 But how how are the doctors here supposed to treat 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:55.480 these various vampires because there's not simply one vampire, right, 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:56.880 I mean, all we have to do is look around 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.200 at the at the wealth of of of global folklore 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.560 and legend to see that there are multiple varieties of 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.160 vampire out there. How are we to figure out exactly 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.240 what ailment might be causing any given one of them? Right? 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.280 You know? I I think despite the fact that sometimes 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.920 when you hear people complain about the vampire movies of today. 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:21.400 They will specifically complain about the lack of consistency and 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.040 the rules that the vampire must adhere to in order 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.000 to survive or be defeated or whatever, you know what 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.160 I'm talking about. Like they're saying there needs to be 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:33.479 more consistency, Like people complain like what this movie had 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:38.440 a vampire that like, yeah, what this vampire didn't respond 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.080 to across or oh what you know what I mean? 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.039 But I feel exactly the opposite. I I do not 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:48.280 think there should be more consistency in what supernatural rules 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.160 apply to vampires in the movies. I think there should 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.800 be less consistency and more variety to reflect the fact 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.080 that the vampire, long before it emerged as a sort 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:01.720 of twentieth century movie monster with with well established tropes 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.040 and cliches that you can repeat in every single monster 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.080 movie down the road, it was, it was a folk 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.440 almost at folk hero, certainly not a fulk hero of 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.360 folk monster, a monster of the people of the folk 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.320 lore you know, spread from house to house, from town 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.720 to town, beliefs about the dead coming back to life, 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.880 beliefs about how they drain the vitality of the living. 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.160 There are a few things that are consistent, but other 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.640 than that, there's a lot of variety. And I think 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:31.760 one of the reasons we see a lot of variety 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.720 in vampire folklore is the close association with vampires and 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.960 real historical biological diseases, which of course there is plenty 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.600 of variety in as well. Yeah, I mean globally you 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.079 look at them and they range from spectral forces to 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.000 physical blood drinkers, from humanoid monsters to things best described 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.760 as great flesh bags or or chimerical hybrids that have 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.280 you know, involved beast parts. Right. Uh, And you know, 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.200 we obviously love vampires on the show We're very We're 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.880 a pro vampire podcast. I think we're we're recovering to 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.720 the vampire position, right. Vampires got a little stale for 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.760 a while there in the movies. Well, I think the 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.720 things that get stale are first of all, a tendency 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.560 to only adhere to very certain aspects of the vampire 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.320 trope and not and this, and not realizing they have 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.800 this rich heritage that you need to you you could 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.079 be drawing from, Like how many vampire movies utilize their 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.480 fascination with with knots and uh and and chords. You 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.440 know where they have some sort of intricate pattern that 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.560 keeps them occupied until the sun comes up. How many? 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.400 How many use the throw rice on the ground or 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.160 seeds on the ground so they have to stop and 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.960 count them. Yeah, that sort of thing. Um or or 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.080 the idea which we will touch on later, the the 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.960 idea that you could become a vampire simply by being 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:55.200 a magnificent lover. That's almost never explored as a vampire origin. 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.280 I don't think I know that one. Yeah, like that, 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.360 that's one that's sited in one of the papers we 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.920 look at. If you're just a fabulous lover, you might 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:03.880 turn into a vampire. I want to see that in 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.120 the film. Yeah, it should, well, I mean it should 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:09.040 show up because there should be more variety, like I'm saying, 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.360 in the vampire movies. I think we're on the same 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.720 page about this. And then the other thing too is 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.640 we can't always blame it on the vampire. Sometimes it's 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.279 just a poor movie or poor script or performance. Is 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.919 there any other man? The many factors that can hurt 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:28.359 a vampire film. But no matter what, the baseline principle 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.240 behind the vampire continues to resonate that you have this 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.599 sort of human but ultimately an human thing that wants 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:39.279 to drain our life force. And there are any number 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.240 of cultural and psychological angles to take on all of this, right, 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:46.600 I mean, the racial treatment of the vampire legend, the 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:52.120 the emotional aspects of vampireism. Sexual issues with vamporism are 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.520 long for immortality, but there's almost always this this element 0:04:55.560 --> 0:05:00.280 of contagion, right, some physical change uh, in physiological other 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.279 news that can be acquired, and that's what we're going 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.440 to be focusing on today, the element of contagion, of disease, 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:12.359 of physiological change. We want to explore the medical side 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:16.160 of the vampire legend, uh, and this is a territory 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.800 that's extremely rich. So there's no way we're gonna have 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.440 time today to explore all of the fascinating ways that 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:26.159 you can look at vampire legends from from a medical standpoint, 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.200 where we're going to explore some of the most interesting 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:30.719 ones right now, there's a lot of fascinating ground to 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.000 cover on the subject in the link between uh, medical 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.479 conditions and diseases and the vampire lore. So this is 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.799 going to be part one of a two part episode. 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:41.800 We hope you'll stick around for both of them. And 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:43.520 if some of you out there are are listening to 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.760 this and you're saying, well, Robert and Joe, I'm not 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.400 really a vampire fan. I'm more of a werewolf fan. Well, 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.960 the good news is that there's a little bit of 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:52.760 werewolf in here too. A lot of the things that 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.000 we're discussing here you could potentially apply to myths of werewolf, 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.200 any kind of myth where people are taking on some 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.240 sort of you know, physiological otherness. Yes. And another thing 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.560 I would say is that the vampire lore and the 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:11.080 werewolf lore are not quite so distinct in their origins 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.680 as they have become in the movies of today. Uh So, 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.520 obviously we're not going to be assuming today that vampires 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.039 are real, but we can ask what goes to explain 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:25.760 the origins of vampire folklore. And of course, as always, Robert, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.440 you and I are fond of emphasizing that sometimes in 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:32.240 seeking the inspiration behind mythical beasts and monsters and that 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:36.000 kind of thing, we sometimes underplay the potential role of 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.600 creative imagination. Right, Sometimes writers and storytellers just use their 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.920 imagination and make things up, And sometimes these made up 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.240 stories become very popular and spread far and wide, but 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.920 also sometimes mythical beasts and stories are indeed inspired by 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:55.200 aspects of reality, of nature, of human history being misinterpreted 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.960 as supernatural. And so we're gonna look at how that 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:02.279 last part applies to the idea of vampires. Could vampires 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.719 be an example of something in nature being misinterpreted, not 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.960 simply a product of creative imagination, but based in a 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.320 misunderstanding of real biology and nature at work, interpreted through 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.040 the superstitious lenses of human culture. And of course, as 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.080 we we've we've hinted at an obvious place to look 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.480 for this kind of inspiration for vampire lore would be 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.360 in human diseases. It turns out lots of human diseases 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.640 over the years have been linked to vampireism, so many 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.200 that we can't talk about all of them. But today 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.120 we we we want to take a quick tour through 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.960 the medical view of vampireism. So let's settle into the 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.480 vampire clinic. Robert, you started to paint a picture of 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.280 this earlier. Yeah, we imagine we're in a wing of 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.920 Dark Place Hospital and uh, and Dr Lucian Sanchez is 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.840 waiting to see the next patient who comes in at 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:53.920 the vampire clinic. So we got a waiting room full 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.680 of people who have brought their loved ones suspecting they 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:00.360 may be vampires, they may be becoming vampires, they may 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.760 be at risk of becoming vampires. And they've all got 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.880 to see Dr Sanchez and say, tell me what's going on? Doc? 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.320 Can you help my vampire uncle? Yeah? And the confusing 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.240 thing is that these different vampire patients, they do have 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.680 at times drastically different characteristics. Some are are pale and 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.400 frothing blood uh summer uh summer, or violent. Some are 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.920 more carnal in their their desires, you know. Some are 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.760 creeping along like like Count Orlock from nos Ferato. Others 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:36.079 are are just waltzing in, glittering like the vampires from Twilight. 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.480 Surely these are all different ailments. They most surely are. Now. 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.600 I think one patient that we can get out of 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.560 the way fairly quickly, not because it's not interesting, but 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.600 because it's kind of a different direction than we want 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.360 to go in today is the patient who presents to 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.840 Dr Lucien Sanchez with clinical vamporism. This would be a 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.480 term that is not so much a disease of the body, 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.200 but this would be a mental disorder that tends to 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:08.000 entail aspects of necrophilia, of cannibalism, of sadism, of necrophagia, 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.800 and fascination with blood. This is when you get, for example, 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.560 people who are actually drinking blood, not because they are 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:18.760 supernatural vampires, but because they have an unfortunate mental disorder 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.440 right that may or may not be um influenced by 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.240 existing vampire fiction, kind of giving them something to feed 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.400 on with their delusions. Now, putting that aside, the first 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.000 patient that I think we should see in the clinic 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:36.040 today is one that you've visited before on this podcast, Robert, 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.880 which is the vampire who in fact is experiencing an 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:44.760 infection of syphilis. Yes, and indeed, Julie Douglas and I 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.400 discussed this at length in two episodes that we did 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.600 on syphilis, and we recently relaunched these episodes as a 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.320 single vault episode of stuff to blow your mind. So 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.000 if you want the full deep dive on that, you 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.880 should probably go back to the syphilis episodes, right, But 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.000 but I'm gonna I'm gonna try and condense it here 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:04.319 and give you, like just the the vampire syphilis cell 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.000 on the whole thing. So First of all, I just 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.120 need to run through what is syphilis. Many of you 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.360 may not know, uh, you should know because it is. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:16.880 It is still around and it has been a highly 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:21.679 influential um uh disease on human history. Yeah, you might 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:26.000 say it is a major player in the cast of biohistory. Yeah, 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.079 definitely so. Syphilis is a chronic, sexually transmitted disease caused 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:36.280 by the spiral keep bacterium Treponema palladum palatum or T. Palatum. 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.840 The illness spread through Europe from the mid fifteenth century onward, 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:43.240 and despite the twentieth century advancement of antibiotics, which is 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.160 really the you know, the silver bullet that that that 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.640 took out a lot of the threat posed by syphilis. Regardless, 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.280 syphilis remains a global health concern, especially when you when 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.640 you consider that more than a million pregnant women pass 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.959 syphilis onto unborn children each year. According to the World 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.680 Health Organization, this forum, known as congenital syphilis, causes severe, 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:09.760 disabling and lethal health complications for the developing fetus. Now, 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:14.679 in non congenital cases, the primary infection of syphilis occurs 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.600 when T. Palatum enters the body, leaving a sore or 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.600 sores at the side of transmission for three to six weeks. 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.080 Then a secondary infection pops up in the weeks following 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.200 the primary infection. At this point, the initial te paatum 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.400 invasion is over, and now the enemy moves through the host. 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.679 A rash spreads across the entire body, accompanying accompanied by 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.960 various symptoms such as fever, lethargy, headaches, aches, and hair loss. 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.679 At this point, the host will enter a latent or 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.960 or hidden stage of the disease, and the T. Palatum 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.800 invasion is still present the body, but it's just no 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.960 longer contagious. You can think how that kind of hidden section, 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:59.000 or any any disease that has a latency period like that, 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.480 that makes it harder to discern exactly where the symptoms 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:06.000 you're experiencing are coming from or what caused them. Those 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.520 can help contribute to supernatural interpretations exactly. And it also 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.360 makes it all the more dangerous, right because you you 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.080 you get sick and then it seems like you get better, 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.000 but it's not the case. You still are carrying um 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.120 uh T palatum inside your body. Uh. And also I 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.280 should point out as far as symptoms go, syphialus was 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.839 often referred to as the Great Imitator because it would 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:33.600 it would the symptoms were not necessarily just you know ABC. Uh. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.280 In a way, it kind of ties in nicely with 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.320 what we're discussing, uh in regards to the vampire myth. 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.840 So it became difficult to to diagnose at times. I mean, 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.640 how many diseases have flu like symptoms exactly, these diseases 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.760 that are easy to mistake for each other. Now there's 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.480 another step to all of this that goes into decidedly 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:55.679 more monstrous territory. Finally, and roughly fifteen to thirty of 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.120 those infected, the syphilis enters its late stage, also known 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.040 as the tertiary stay age, and it occurs ten to 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:06.120 twenty years after the initial infection, and the cavalcade of 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:13.000 symptoms include tissue damage, muscle damage, oregon damage, coordination problems, paralysis, numbness, 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:18.440 gradual blindness, dementia, and death. Um. This is where you 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:20.400 really get into the period where syphilis, um, you know, 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:25.200 has just this disastrous debilitating effects on say, facial features. 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.960 I've often mentioned on the show before. If anyone wants 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:33.360 to just a fabulous bit of medical history UH television, 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:37.600 they should watch The Nick, which was the Soderberg television series, 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.800 went to two seasons. Clive Owens, Yeah, Clive Owens plays 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.960 Dr Thackeray, Uh, you know, cutting edge of physician of 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.720 the of the time. But this is and and there's 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.080 a whole plot line in it where he's treating um 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.880 an individual with syphilis, and this is uh, this is 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.320 pre antibiotics. So there's only so much you can do. 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.360 But it's a very well done examination of syphilis in 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:06.520 that show. So, according to Slavic and comparative literature professor 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:11.079 Thomas Longanovic, commentators have often drawn a line of comparison 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:16.120 between the vampire uh and hereditary syphilis, especially hereditary again 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.280 being that that has passed from a mother to a child. 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:24.640 Because this it twists and decimates the features uh it uh, 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:28.200 and it can result in sharp, pointy teeth also known 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:33.200 as Hutchinson's teeth, long nails, and elongated skulls and so superficially, 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:36.240 it's easy to look at extreme cases of late syphilis 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:38.840 and compare them to something like count like Count Orlock 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.800 from the film Nosferato. Oh yeah, now the nose Ferrato 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.360 tradition especially this comes through in in later versions of 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.360 the Lord. It might not be there quite so much 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.120 in earlier versions, but like in Werner Hertzog's adaptation of No. 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.600 S Farrato, there's a clear link between the vampire and disease. 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.240 Maybe not so much explicitly syphilis, but like in in 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:04.440 Hertzog's Nos f a To, the vampire brings plague rats 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.160 with him where he goes. Yeah, he arrives on a 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.160 ship too. I mean the way a number of contagions 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:15.040 suddenly spread their way through an ever widening world. Uh. 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.960 And it's also been pointed out that while we uh 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.920 we we don't know the exact cause of brom Stoker's 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.440 death in nine uh, some biographers do attribute his death 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.200 to possibly being tertiary syphilis. So there is this idea 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.320 that perhaps, um, perhaps this is a this is a 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.120 big elf here, the vampire story that is presented in 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:42.040 popularized through Dracula has a direct link to the experience 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.240 of syphilis. Oh. You can almost imagine a kind of 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.360 cronenbergie in take on that on the composition of the 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.400 story with that in mind. Now, if I were to 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.800 present though a clear case, I mean, there are a 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.120 number of cases I think of of cinematic vampires and 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.200 TV vampires that match up with this. So we've already 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.480 mentioned or Lock. I think you could also throw in 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.440 any version of a vampire where at first they're beautiful 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.560 and then like a hideous nature's revealed. I'm thinking of 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:12.240 Samahiak and from Dusk Till Dawn. But the best example 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:17.320 it's clearly Count spiral Keet himself, which was from a 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:21.880 a U. S. Military um educational animated film about the 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.560 dangers of syphilis. What I didn't know about this? Oh yeah, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.200 I recommend everyone check it out. If you just go 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.080 to YouTube and you do a search for Count spiral 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:35.560 Keet or just Count Syphilis, I guess it'll probably come 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.440 up for that as well. It's just this, uh, this wonderful, 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:43.000 weird educational film about the dangers of syphilis. Oh. I 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:44.840 just looked it up. I'm seeing okay. It's got a 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.160 kind of like pink panther kind of animation style. Also 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:52.320 looks like it might have some uh some somewhat sexist imagery, 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.240 like casting the female form as like a like a 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.520 target of disease delivery. Yeah, you see this a lot. 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.200 I mean I don't want to go down the syphilis 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.600 wormhole too much here, but um, you see that a 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.439 lot too, and messaging of the of of the the 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:12.040 early twentieth century, especially where they're they're warning men about 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.000 the dangers of syphilis and in doing so, they're warning 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:19.000 them about the dangers of females and they're portraying females. 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.520 Is this kind of monstrous creature ultimately like a hidden 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.040 monstrous nature. Now, of course, one has to take into 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.760 account of the primary target of these messages. We're you know, 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.840 we're talking about men that are in the military at 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.240 the listed men, listed men. But uh, but at the 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.119 same time, it is kind of creepy and and clearly 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.840 there's this strain of misogyny to the messages. It's almost 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.040 the same way that you couldn't just warn children about 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.680 the dangers of drowning in the pool and the old 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.399 moral pit. You had to make up a monster that 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.040 lived there and would pull them in. Yeah, it's like 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.040 you can't just warn people about the dangers of unprotected 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.560 sexual intercourse. You have to like sort of make the 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.960 person that they might be having X with into a 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.800 monster of some kind. Yeah. Indeed, though thought at the 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.720 heart that we we do have to drive home. So syphilis, yes, uh, 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:13.840 contagious and can do very debilitating things to your body 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.959 and also your mind. But for the most part that look, 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.520 there's not this link of of syphilis making anybody want 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.720 to drink blood or anything like that. No, no, no, no, 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.240 So it's I think it's a it's a there's a 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:27.640 it lines up in interesting ways with the vampire myth. 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:32.280 But yeah, I don't. I'm certainly not one to say, oh, vampires, 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:34.920 that's syphilis. Okay, So a mixed bag on this one. 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.199 A few a few things that say this could have 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:41.040 inspired some vampire lore, possibly especially maybe in the modern age, 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:46.160 but it's not a super strong link. Still, those vampires 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.440 that have come to the clinic that that that look 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.439 a little or locking in. We'll just give him some 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.200 antibiotics and yes, and see if we can't sort that out. 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.200 All right, Well, we need to take a quick ad 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:03.240 break and then we will be right back. Alright, we're back. Okay. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.000 Are you ready to look at the next patient at 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.960 the Dark Place Vampire clinic. Let's do it. Okay, So 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.600 this next one, I think is going to be and 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:12.800 it's going to be kind of a false trail, but 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:17.120 an interesting one raising some good questions about science, communication, 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.280 and the media. So I want to start this next 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.800 one by looking at a New York Times article from 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:26.520 nineteen five by Philip M. Boffi called rare disease proposed 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.200 as cause for vampires. I like how it they used 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:34.640 the word cause. It's not like inspiration, but like cause, 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:39.000 like it made vampires. And I think they're that that 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.440 might show up again in some other media that we 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.480 should be wary of. So this article is presenting ideas 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.919 by someone named Dr David H. Dolphin, who is a 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:52.359 Canadian biochemist at the University of British Columbia, and Dr 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.000 Dolphin apparently suggested in a talk at the American Association 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:00.359 of the Advancement of Science or AS that va Empire 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.600 and werewolf legends might be rooted in the effects of 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:09.399 porphyria diseases. Now, porphyria diseases, I'll go into more detail 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.960 about them in a bit, but they're essentially a malfunction 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:16.040 of the body's ability to manufacture important compounds in the blood. 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.760 And this malfunction of the manufacturing of these compounds leads 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.439 to a build up of byproducts in the body that 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.840 can be harmful about. The article says about one out 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.120 of every two hundred thousand people are affected, and Dr 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.840 Dolphin gives some reasons. He thinks that porphyria diseases may 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.960 have inspired the vampire legends. So, first of all, vampires 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.199 obviously hate the sun. Aversion to sunlight, right, Indeed, that's 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.080 one of the rules of emperiism that is there is 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.840 most commonly portrayed, I would say, especially in the modern age. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.919 Actually maybe less universal in the older folk beliefs. But 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.960 he says that porphyria diseases can leave the skin extremely 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.800 sensitive to sunlight, to the extent that even mild exposure 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:00.840 to sunlight could cause disfiguring in jury to the skin 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.280 and quote caused the nose and fingers to fall off 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.240 and make the lips and gums so taught that the teeth, 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.800 although no larger than ordinary, look like they are jutting 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.439 out in a menacing animal like manner. And at a 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.720 time before modern medicine or modern medical understanding, this could 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.440 lead someone suffering from porphyria to only leave the house 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.440 at night because of the dangers of the sunlight. Quote. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:28.040 Some victims of the disease also become very hairy, he said, 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.520 conceivably one of nature's efforts to protect the skin from 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.480 the sun. Uh. And so this makes a link to 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:38.040 the werewolf legend also, of course, but apparently Dr Dolphin 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.160 was not the first to suggest porphyria could have contributed 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.280 to werewolf legend. He might have been the first to 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.920 make the link to vampires. You know, this is also 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.800 interesting to think about in terms of sunglasses, which which 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:53.240 you and I have research for an upcoming side project. 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:58.160 I guess you'd say, but without access to modern sunglasses, 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:00.879 what could you do if you had a severe reaction 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.720 to sunlight? I mean, you could wear hats and hoods certainly, 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.359 but you wouldn't be able to just throw on a 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:12.040 pair of all encompassing um spectacles that will shield your 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.919 eyes from the fearsome light of day. Yeah, I don't know. 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.840 I wonder if what the sensitivity to light is in 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:22.399 an ocular sense. It's definitely there in the skin, um, 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.040 but it could affect the eyes as well. I don't know. Yeah, 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.000 I mean you could cover yourself up with just make 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:30.280 sure you're you're fully covered. I mean, you know this 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:32.520 one there there is there that might be regarded as 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.640 suspicious as well. As villagers as well. There's because there's 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.439 some vampire film that I saw a part of on 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:42.320 TV ages ago. Maybe listeners can chime in if if 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:44.720 you don't know the name of this film. But the 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:48.080 vampires are seeing like walking around in the daylight in 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.000 I think Texas somewhere, and they're covering themselves with like 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:56.320 super thick sunblock, like just basically and like like pasty 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:00.879 white face with big sunglasses on. Uh. And it and 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.280 it's the near dark. I don't think it's No, it's not. 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:06.639