Cadaver sanguisugus Hi do you have a scholarly source for the term cadaver sanguisugus having been used at least once by William de Newburgh or anyone else I notice that there are a lot of Google hits on vampire forums etc but according to this paper only the word sanguisuga occurs and it is translated by historian James Carley as a leech In the Medieval sourcebook edition of Newburgh the sentence reads The young men however spurred on by wrath feared not and inflicted a wound upon the senseless carcass out of which incontinently flowed such a stream of blood that it might have been taken for a leech filled with the blood of many persons