Bitten by a Bat, 4

Spectre or Linnaeus’ False Vampire Bat

The association of large bats with vampires stemmed from Linnaeus’ original namings, and so, in ‘Dracula’, Quincey, the American, remarks:

‘I have not seen anything pulled down so quick since I was on the Pampas and had a mare that I was fond of go to grass all in a night. One of those big bats that they call vampires had got at her in the night, and what with his gorge and the vein left open, there wasn’t enough blood in her to let her stand up, and I had to put a bullet through her as she lay.’ 

The spectral bat (Vampyrum spectrum) is a large, carnivorous leaf-nosed bat found in Mexico, Central America and South America.  It has a robust skull and teeth, with which it delivers a powerful bite to kill its prey, likely to be birds, rodents and insects.

In Trinidad, these bats are sometimes thought to be ghosts.

Preventing Pellagra

In ‘Dracula’ Dr Van Helsing attempts to provide his companions with a number of preventives against the vampires, especially garlic, sacred wafers, and crosses.

Instead, if you are planning to travel to Romania or the Deep South of the USA and eat a very limited diet of mamaliga or cornmeal, I recommend for its Vitamin  B: MARMITE!

Cornmeal and Pellagra in the USA

In the early 20th century an outbreak of pellagra was noted by Dr Searcy, the medical superintendent of the Mount Vernon Hospital for the coloured insane in Alabama. He thought the disease was caused by toxic maize, but was not contagious – the nurses did not suffer. Pellagra began to be recognised as widespread amongst poor black women in the Southern USA eating mainly a diet of cornmeal.

For years afterwards any relationship with dietary deficiency was opposed – preferred explanations were genetic susceptibility, infection and poor sewerage.