Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-01-11
aliseellanruus Grading.
BlOoDSUCKlNG BATS.
These Pests Are Plentiful In the
Forests of Brazil

These Pests Are Plentiful In the
Forests of Brazil.
Half a dozen of US mad bean telling
what we thought we knew about
bloodsucking bats, but our conversa-
ton had developed only an astonishing
amount of misinformation and irrecon-
cilable differences. So we called in the
doctor who had lived some years in
Brazil and asked him to comb out our
tangled ideas.
Pm not surprised at your confu-
sion," he began, for at one time or
another 1 have believed above every
thing your questions would suggest.
When was a schoolboy the vampire
was bat as large as a crow. had a
horn on his nose and was described as
sitting on his victims feet, tanning MIN
with hts wings while he worked his
pumping apparatus. There Is such bat,
but when 1t was proved that 1t was a
fruit eater many Of US doubted the
whole bat legend along with the old
mythology. There Is bloodsuckins |
vampire however-millions Of them.
THE old Spanish ccnquistadors found |
proof Of its existence in sore great
toes, which looked as II the skin had
been delicately 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 vegetarians. The real
thing is a small reddish brown creature |
closely resembling bats of the same |
color caught mere not infrequently.
"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 well as their
teeth. All the other animals, so far as
i KNOW, nave d iCSCoSoiy
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 1t is taken up into the
system. With neither teeth
nor stomach, it has no alternative. 1t
must find nourishment 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 I
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
family, for instance, just suits them
they'll follow that person to any part
the house, and no matter how care
fully he may be covered or screened
they will find their particular tipple.
1.-The stories of their bleeding people I
almost to death are true only partly.
I have known of one boy who was so
persistently 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 1t be-
came so lacerated that there was con-
subsequent hemorrhage. This
lad was the youngest of four broth
ers. They all slept in the same room {
and sometimes changed beds, but none
If the others was ever bitten. Ia
Cattle and horses are attacked al I
ways at a spot on the spine just back
Of the shoulders, where the hair sep |,
arates in a starlike spot. This in the
case of horse is just where the front S
end of the saddle comes, and the at
tack therefore makes vast deal Of
trouble where every one rides horse le
tack. A majority of the Brazilian
horses and nearly all the cows are bit
ten by these plaques. In
Fortunately the pests are mostly s
confined to the forest country. They ,
give comparatively little trouble in cit
les and villages, though the construc-
ton of houses makes it impossible to {
keep them out. In cities tiles are eX- .
clusively used for roofs and in the
palm leaf thatching, and all /,
kinds Of bats come and go at pleasure.
One rarely goes to sleep without from :
one to a dozen flying about the room.
They are nearly all harmless and are
because they catch insects.
They all look so much alike that one
does not know which to attack.
How the genuine vampires eluded
scientific research so long is a mys-
terry. The species was not positively
identified until the visit Of Darwin in
tine Beagle. 1t was in tine seventies, 1
think, and there is not at the present
day, so far as 1 can learn, a single
well authenticated case recorded in
the natural histories of a true vam-
pire being captured while feeding on
a human being."-Dewey Austin Cobb
in New York Tribune.