son dead in his bed. Who
cannot perceive in these words the surest marks of prepossession and
fear? The first time these act upon the imagination of the pretended
victim of vampirism they do not produce their entire effect, and not
only dispose his mind to be more vividly struck by them; that also
does not fail to happen, and to produce the effect which would
naturally follow.

Notice well that the dead man did not return on the night of the day
that his son communicated his dream to his friends, because, according
to all appearances, these sat up with him, and prevented him from
yielding to his fear.

I now come to those corpses full of fluid blood, and whose beard, hair
and nails had grown again. One may dispute three parts of these
prodigies, and be very complaisant if we admit the truth of a few of
them. All philosophers know well enough how much the people, and even
certain historians, enlarge upon things which appear but a little
extraordinary. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to explain their
cause physically.

Experience teaches us that there are certain kinds of earth which will
preserve dead bodies perfectly fresh. The reasons of this have been
often explained, without my giving myself the trouble to make a
particular recital of them. There is at Thoulouse a vault in a church
belonging to some monks, where the bodies remain so entirely perfect
that there are some which have been there nearly two centuries, and
appear still living.

They have been ranged in an upright posture against the wall, and are
clothed in the dress they usually wore. What is very remarkable is,
that the bodies which are placed on the other side of this same vault
become in two or three days the food of worms.

As to the growth of the nails, the hair and the beard, it is often
perceived in many corpses. While there yet remains a great deal of
moisture in the body, it is not surprising that during some time we
see some augmentation in those parts which do not demand a vital
spirit.

The fluid blood flowing through the canals of the body seems to form a
greater difficulty; but physical reasons may be given for this. It
might very well happen that the heat of the sun warming the nitrous
and sulphureous particles which are found in those earths that are
proper for preserving the body, those particles having incorporated
themselves in the newly interred corpses, ferment, decoagulate, and
melt the curdled blood, render it liquid, an