34 Forensic dentistry
Much of the understanding of death in earlier times was based on super-
stition or myth, and nowhere is this more demonstrable than in the vampire
legends of medieval Europe.^12 In an effort to explain epidemics, bad luck,
or other untoward occurrences in a village, some individuals readily placed
the blame for these events on the recently dead. In an effort to ameliorate
the village’s problems and confirm the culpability of a particular corpse, the
grave of the recently deceased was sometimes opened. On exhuming the
body, typical changes of decomposition would be noted as expected, though
they were misinterpreted as indicating something much more menacing than
the normal dissolution of the body. For instance, purging of the body is often
seen in decomposing corpses. This is the issue of a dark bloody fluid from
the oral and nasal passages due to autolysis, putrefaction, and liquefaction of
the internal viscera. The resultant fluid is pushed out of the nose and mouth
through the airways and esophagus by decompositional gas formation,
which causes increased pressure within the thoracic and abdominal cavities.
Though now recognized as a common postmortem artifact, this purging pro-
cess was taken to represent blood soiling of the mouth due to recent feeding
on the blood of living victims. Further, with decomposition, the epidermis
of the skin separates from the underlying dermis, resulting in so-called skin
slip. Rather than being recognized as a decompositional change, this slip-
page of the skin was attributed to the growth of new skin, and decomposi-
tional bloating and red discoloration of the body were described as a healthy,
ruddy complexion, compared with the sallow appearance of the deceased at
the time of burial. As decomposition progresses, rigor mortis (or stiffening of
the extremities) disappears, but this suppleness of the limbs was considered a
sure sign of vampirism. All of these factors were taken to indicate continued
life beyond the grave, as well as nocturnal feasting on the blood of the living
occupants of the village. Detailed methods of investigation were developed
in order to confirm the identity of the “vampire,” and there were also pre-
scribed procedures for warding off the revenant, and for putting it to rest
permanently. These included such treatments as decapitation, “staking” the
vampire through the heart, removal of the heart, cremation, tying the mouth
shut, and reburial face down, presumably to confuse the undead when he or
she attempted to rise from the grave.
It seems difficult to believe that such misconceptions could occur, particu-
larly as the phenomenon of postmortem decomposition should have been well
known (refrigeration of decedents not being available in that era), but such is
the case. And even though the beliefs in vampirism were manifestly erroneous
by today’s standards, they do indicate a depth of concern about the process of
death. They also show the development of a detailed investigative and empiric
method, and the development of an internally coherent and systematic way of
explaining observations and understanding death and its relationship to other