This is "a condition of diminished responsiveness usually characterized by a trance-like state and constantly maintained immobility. The patient with catalepsy may remain in one position for minutes, days and even longer."

Back before there were laws governing certificates of death and coroners who made sure you were dead, the science of declaring someone dead was not very precise, to say the least. It's not that catalepsy was so common as comas and near death phases were. After a traumatic accident, one may be breathing shallowly and the heart slowed. The person could go into a catatonic state, but not be dead. With monitors and such now, that's just part of being in critical condition; we know the person is alive. but in rural areas, miles and miles from medical help, often the person diagnosing death was a family member, friend, stranger, but too often not a doctor. Sometimes people knew how to check a pulse, which is your heart was still beating pretty well and they could take a good pulse, you were okay. But sometimes people couldn't take a pulse at all. The best you got was an ear pressed to the chest or close to the nose for sounds of a beating heart or breathing. Either of those too shallow for detection and you were pronounced dead. While wakes gave you roughly 24 hours to improve or die, you usually didn't have longer. Sometimes less, seeing how people did not have embalming and/or funeral homes with an air conditioner cold enough to frost the windows back in those days, funerals held in the heat of summer were often very, very quick. they wouldn't leave a body out long enough to see if it started to smell and was truly dead. Needless to say, many comatose people were buried alive in this fashion.

When you have people buried alive, you can easily see where vampire myths came from. "Partially eaten shroud" was often a sign of vampires. More often than not, it probably came, if not from bugs or natural deterioration, from people buried alive and hungry. Muffled sounds from graves and scratching in coffins on dark nights could have been those people wanting out, audible in the quietness of evening. Fresh bodies and blood and even screams as the heart of an unearthed vampire were staked can all be explained as comatose victims still alive in the grave, not undead. Because the fear of being buried alive was so great, some people went to great lengths to avoid it, stipulating in their wills to be laid out for three days to make sure they were really dead, not be buried until pronounced dead by a certified physician, to be exhumed three days after burial to make sure the body was dead, or some even had elaborate bell systems devised to ring on the surface if they moved their hand below.²

<!--pagebreak-->

Well, enough proving vampires non-existent. Let's just say they do exist. Let's say you'd like to get bitten. But, oh, what to offer? Or if you're a writer, like me, where to have your vampire bite?

[ed. note: the following is for information purposes only; biting anywhere is not recommended!]

Since we're already on the medical topic, let's go on and include this next section in it:

So many veins, where to begin?

Starting with the head down, I'll cover all the best places to "get a bite."

• The external carotid artery-- This is the most common place of all to have a vampire bite. This is the artery in the side of your neck where you take your pulse, closest to the surface between the jaw, slightly under the earlobe and forward, and the collarbone.
• The jugular vein-- This vein is a big no-no to bite. Extending on either side of the trachea (the throat), following down the neck from the chin to the collarbone, this vein is very dangerous to pierce. The jugular leads directly down into the heart and carries all the blood from the brain. The jugular vein is much larger than the carotid artery, and so carries much more blood. Very few people in the world have survived a severed jugular vein (we're talking single digits). So, unless your vampire has... um... fangs of steel and a very still victim, a jugular bite could be potentially deadly. The obverse side to that is it is very easy and quick to kill someone that way. Ripping out the throat, by either severing the jugular vein, puncturing the trachea (the windpipe), or both, causes a very quick death.
• The median cubital vein-- This vein is the one in the elbow where, if you've ever had blood drawn, that is where they stick you. Hey, if a hospital can use it, so can a vampire.
• The ulner artery-- This is the artery in the wrist. After the neck it seems to be the second favorite place for vampires to bite. Remember this though, the vein lies under some tendons (unlike the medial cubital which is right under the skin in the elbow), so that could pose a problem with biting.
• The greater saphenous vein-- This vein runs along the inside of either thigh. The vein is large and deep; it would take a big bite to get down into it, but its location makes it a nice... foreplay move, if you have such an amorous vampire.
• The femoral vein-- This vein is the one at the back of the knee. Like the median cubital in the elbow, this vein lies close to the skin and is an easy bite if you have a victim face down and willing to not kick or unable to kick.

   

¹As found in:

Great Mysteries of the Past
Edited by Gardner Associates
Readers Digest, pub.
© 1991, p. 284.

²The Natural History of the Vampire
By Anthony Masters
G. P. Putnam's Sons, pub.
New York, © 1972

All other medical information provided by:
Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Third Edition
By Dr. Benjamin F. Miller and Claire Brackman Keane
W.B. Saunders Company, pub.
Philadelphia, © 1983.

Source: Written by Keri Amon