LECTURE 11. 53 



also alludes to one of the most' absurd and de- 

 grading superstitions that ever entered the human 

 mind. About the year 1732, an idea prevailed in 

 some parts of Poland and Hungary, that certain 

 human bodies, after interment, became possessed 

 of a power of extracting or absorbing blood from 

 those v.ho were so unfortunate as to pass over, or 

 stand near their graves : such bodies were said to 

 be possessed by Vampyres, and in order to put a 

 stop to their pernicious power, it was supposed 

 necessary to disinter them, and wound them with 

 a sword. Astonishing as this folly may appear, it 

 is yet more astonishing to find that a great many 

 learned treatises were written on the subject, and 

 that while some endeavoured to combat the ab- 

 surdity upon all the principles of sound philosophy, 

 others defended it, from what they called un- 

 doubted facts. In the Bibliotheca Anatomica of 

 the learned Haller may be found a list of most of 

 the publications on this subject, and whoever 

 reads that entertaiiiino; work of the late Lord 

 Orford, entitled Reminiscences* ^ will be fully con- 



* In this work we are informed by his lordship, that a very 

 axalted personage, in the time of his father, was perfectly con- 



