Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1910-01-21
.DLOODSUCK|NG BATS
These Pests Are Plentiful In the
Forests of Brazil.
THEY ARE TRUE VAMPIRES.

But Cattle and Horses Are Their Chief
Victims, Which They Prefer to Hu.
man Beings-Their ChseI-like Teeth
and Peculiar Interior Anatomy.
Half II dozen of us had been telling
what we thought we knew about
blOodSucking bats, but our convcrSa-
tion had developed only an astonish-
ing amount of miSinformatiou and ir-
reconcilable differences. So we called
in the doctor who had lived some
years in Brazil and asked him to comb
out our tangled ideas.
I'm not surprised at your confu-
sion," he began, for ut one time or
another | have believed above every
thing your questions would suggest
When ! was a schoolboy the vampire
was bat as large as a crow, had Il
horn Oh his nose and was described as
sitting on his victims feet, tanning
him with his wings while he worked
his pumping apparatus. There is such
"A bat but when it was proved that it
was fruit eater many of us doubted
the whole bat legend along with the
old mythology. There is boodSucking
vampire, however-millions of them.
The old Spanish conquistadors
found proof of its existence in sore
great toes, which looked as if the skin
had been deIicateIy shaved off, just
deep enough to ooze blood. but they
never caught one and naturally laid
the blame to the biggest ones they
found, which are nearly all vegetari-
ans. The real thing Is Il small reddish
brown creature closely resembling bats
Of the same color caught here not in
frequently.
"The naturalist finds, however. some
surprising differences. They have no
teeth for any purpose save for thin.
ming the skin - not enough for the
blood to flow freely, but just sufficient
to enable them to draw it by suction
The wound rarely bleeds after they
leave it. This preparation is done with
a pair of chisel-like teeth, sharp as a
knife. Their interior anatomy differs
from other animals as we'll as their
teeth. All the other animals, so far as
| know, have stomach and necessary
organs for converting food into blood
The true vampire has only an elOn
gated Sacklike intestine for the storage
Of the blood taken. which requires no
digestion till it is taken up into the
circuatory system With neither teeth
nor stomach. il has no alternative. 1t
must find nouriShmeut ready made.
This popularity may or may not
account for one very strange thing
about its selection of victims. Cattle
and horses are the chief ones. Not
one human being in a hundred entire
ly satisfies their taste. Not half the
people who live among them all their
lives are ever bitten. But if one of a
family, for instance, just suits them
they'll follow that person to any part
Of the house, and no matter how care
fully he may be covered or screened
they will find their particular tipple.
"The stories of their bleeding people
almost to death are true only partly.
| | have known of one boy who was so
persstently followed that, while the
loss of blood was small from single
attack, after months of the drain he
was greatly reduced in vitality He
was always bitten in the same place
the end of the great toe-and it be
| came so lacerated that there was con
siderable subsequent hemorrhage. This
| lad was the youngest Of four broth
ers. They all slept in the same room
and sometimes changed beds, but none
| Of the others was ever bitten.
Cattle aud horses are attacked al
ways at Il spot on the spine just back
Of the shoulders, where the hair sep
4rates in IA starlike spot. Thi" in the
case of a horse is just where the front
end Of the saddle comes. and the at
tack therefore makes vast deal OF
trouble where every one rides horse
back. A majority of the Brazilian