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What example statements about anatomy can you imagine?

How do you imagine a vampires body utilizes blood
or broadcast after ingested?

Has anybody read a book or seen a movie that included a vampire medical evaluation,or autopsy when the examiner knew that the subject was a vampire?

I can remember a few x-files where vampires were autopsied. I know the common factor always seems to be that the body's circulatory system is always still in functioning condition.

Some authors have said the organs are all dried up and dead though so that would make for an interesting autopsy

Subject has brittle/flaky tissues (Perhaps has not feed recently)

Would a younger vampire have some organs still recognizable.Would "scar tissue differ from undisturbed tissue?

ok my "genius"friend just mentioned the need for suspension of the body during the autopsy how would the body be kept from animating...it would have to be in deep torpor.

the x files i have a small remember tuched it abit. but dont really remember the details

you may want to read kerrelyn sparks the first book especially because the main vampire is a scientist ... I the list of her series in my journal if you want.

All of a human's functioning systems --- circulatory, respiratory, excretory --- are functional. That's how they manage to "pass" in human society, and do all those interesting things like fall in love, read books, build conglomerates.

But books and movies have taught us that when the mythological vampire expires he does so in a puff of dust, in a pile of worms, in a molten mess of decaying flesh --- so there would be nothing to autopsy.

Oops. I meant all of a vampire's systems are functioning like a human's.

I believe (just like others above) that the vampires body is the same as a humans. I havent seen or read anything about this subject, so my answer is not advanced or has any resources what so ever.

We don't need to wonder what a vampire autopsy would look like. Autopsies of people believed to be vampires were so commonplace for so many centuries that many local laws were forced to be enacted all over Europe to keep superstitious populaces from practically emptying their graveyards of corpses to cut open, mutilate, stake, behead, and/or burn during "vampire" panics. Thus, there are numerous accounts... some from those then considered reputable doctors and other medical "professionals" of the time... that documented in great detail the decomposing bodies examined and autopsied that were quite stupidly believed by such "professionals" to exhibit evidence of "vampirism: most specifically, the report of what appeared to be "fresh blood" in their mouths and inside the body cavities. In fact, what they were documenting was the decomposition process known as liquification necrosis that liquifies the body's internal organs during decomposition and can resemble blood. Upon seeing the great quantity of dark red liquid inside the mouth and inside the thorasic cavity of the body, it was stupidly assumed that the corpse had somehow become filled with... blood.

And thus began the ridiculous belief of "vampires" as blood-drinkers... which they never were. Prior to the beginning of the practice of opening graves and the cutting open of the bodies therein interred, vampires were not at all believed to have anything to do with blood-drinking whatsoever. Instead, they were known as "plague carriers" and as scapegoats for any calamity that might occur in a village. Your horse died... a vampire was to blame. Your crops failed... again, a vampire was to blame. Your wife was barren... yep, vampires again. Originally, everything from disease to fires, even to bad luck were all blamed on "vampires."

Of course, were those here interested in uncovering the truth and reading the actual historic accounts instead of relying almost exclusively on the fictions of Hollywood and Anne Rice, et al, this would be well known and preclude any need for questions like this one.

For those far-too-few here for whom factual information on this topic is desired, I again highly recommend the following non-fiction books that specifically address these post-mortem examinations of "vampires" and were written by actual modern doctors and Slavic researchers:

The Vampire: A Casebook - Dr. Alan Dundes
Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality - Dr. Paul Barber

Correction to previous post: The decomposition process is called -- Liquifaction Necrosis

Felix.. really? Mmmmmm I don't remember that episode! Knew they had vampires in a few and one was even funny. Now I'll have to hunt that one down online!

Just curious, because most fictional vampires just go pooof into dust or bones upon 'final death' with nothing left to show their existence.

Exactly Lumiya. An explanation to counter popular myth would have to be provided, which is the essence of the whole undead thing. Not alive exactly, but not dead either.

UpirLikhyj - these books that you recommend are they medical books that would need a person of strong will?

The Vampire: A Casebook - Dr. Alan Dundes

Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality - Dr. Paul Barber

Upir always has such in depth answers!! I myself have not seen to much other than the x-files and the death of humanity scene in Interview with a Vampire....

Very interesting...

Thanks Upir A "possible" vampire is a supporting character in my book.Those far fetched " medical reports" are the fuel I am looking for to include perceptive leads throughout the story.Very rich info thank you.

Vampires do tend to go poof when they are destroyed in one of the prescribed methods.I am swimming in resourses thank you as well Polish.

Now I can't get alien autopsies and the X-Files out of my head.

Can't see how a vampire could be autopsied if they're a pile o' ash!

LumiyaOfTheSith - since it's fiction lets just add a some water and starch with a bit of yeast and mix it up in the bathtub and see if it rises .... LOL

One thing comes to mind... Coagulated blood.

Once again UpirLikhyj , an in depth and very informative answer. In looking this up, I have read this before also , and it seems logical that the people of the time , with their limited knowlege, or even in some cases the fact that the church of the period , would find some way in creating tales to explain away the unknown , or things they could not answer.

I am so embarrased that I spaced the way vampires dust after they are destroyed,but I would think a vampire in torpor would be autopsy-able...with certain high security precautions.

Again, as per the other thread, it really depends on the mythos you're using. Again, if you're the writer do whatever you wish.

My favorite explanation is per the old World of Darkness, Vampire The Masquerade sytem, and that is that everything shuts down, nothing works anymore. Organs are shrivelled and dead and have become simply storage for blood. The blood vessels don't serve to carry blood anymore unless the vampire has expended effort to simulate a pulse. It'd just be a mess of spongey, withered tissue.

Polishsiren -

The two books I recommended are written by doctorate-level professors specializing primarily in Slavic folkore. You can find far more detailed information at amazon.com on both books, both of whom received almost exclusively five-star reviews.

Ahhh, the torpor and autopsy routine... a good one! Except, like so many fictional vampires, cutting through and doing an autopsy, wouldn't that do something to cause the vampire to turn to dust with all those sharp objects and dealing with the heart?

"wouldn't that do something to cause the vampire to turn to dust with all those sharp objects and dealing with the heart?"

Again, it depends on the mythos. With VtM, generally once a vampire is in torpor, it takes the bite of another supernatural, fire, sunlight, or decapitation to bestow final death.

I've actually had it happen to me in a couple of roleplaying games. THAT was a fun breach of the Masquerade that needed covering up.

I don't really think there would be much difference between a vampire and a human.. there's nothing really changing physically other than the fangs.

It's probably technically impossible to perform an autopsy on a vampire, unless they were newly turned. Or in Torpor, as mentioned earlier.
It might even be possible to perform an autopsy on most vampires during the day, since they are considered dead then. It would just be rather dangerous.

Well put all of you.I have read exerpts from upirs suggestion and man the desperation of unstudied medical "professionals" back in the day and the things that made it into factual text is astonding the fact that some of it went unnoticed even more astonding.

And once again, it is your world you're writing. Whatever you do, make sure it's what makes sense to your world. Being accurate to mythos and genre doesn't mean anything unless you keep it true to what it is you want.

The Blade III movie had scene in it of an autopsy.

The History Channel has an episode where they discuss the decomposition of bodies and how they were thought to be vampires. It states the same things that Upir mentioned.

never read or seen anything like that but out of opinion...I don't think they'd have blood after all they are the undead...just because the un is there doesn't exclude the suggestion that they did die...I think maybe most organs would be unuseful...

Although I completely agree with Upir, if you were looking for a fictional book that gives some insight - The Necromancer series by Brian Lumley is wonderful.

He shows the vampire as actually being a parasitic worm or leech that attaches itself around the spinal column of it's host. In this case, the vampire doesn't turn to dust, so one could technically autopsy the body.

I believe blood is used up sort of as fuel is in a car. Burned up or being completely and utterly absorbed and destroyed by their system.

I thnk you will find the Peter Plogojowitz case interesting.

The Report 1725 is not very good but you may find it useful.
It`s the only case of vampire authopsy I know of.

This is a bit of info about it:

The report from 1725 info
It would be interesting for you to read the report itself I think.

http://www.dagonbytes.com/vampires/history/arnoldpaul.htm

This might be interesting for you too!

I guess that would mean that a fictional vampire wouldn't bleed.

I have never seen any movie or read a book about a vampire autopsy but I would think it would be just like any other autopsy.

I haven't seen or heard of this, so I have no idea, but I'm guessing it would be like a normal human autopsy since vampires and humans aren't really so different.

I would guess that their innards wouldn't be much different looking then a regualr human's.

Well you must pass in dayside society and I know my insides look normal so I'd imagain others would look the same

In the early 1730s, a band of Austrian medical officers were summoned to the Serbian village of Medvegia. An investigation was underway concerning the strange deaths of several villagers. The locals claimed the deaths were caused by vampires.

In their report, Visum et Repertum (Seen and Discovered), the officers told not only what they had heard from the villagers but also, in admirable clinical detail, what they themselves had seen when they exhumed and dissected the bodies of the supposed victims of the vampire.

Reference and further reading:

The Vampires of Medvegia

wow so many opinions, i just dont know what a vampire autopsy would be like maybe a little more blood in the stomach but other then that i dont know.

If the case of the ghost in a vacant vessel is used as the definition of vampire, I would think the body would show suspended entropy. A spongy type material taking over the former tissues and internal organs. The blood the vampire feeds on could be imagined to fill the sponge type material.