Dracula didn’t just drink blood. He did something else weird with it | Tech News

He was most famous for drinking it, but apparently Dracula also cried tears of blood, according to new research.

The Romanian prince known as Vlad the Impaler is cited as the inspiration for the story of Count Dracula.

However, a new study has found letters written by Vlad III, Voivode of Wallachia, show evidence of bloody tears.

Analysis of proteins on the documents from the 1400s indicate that he may have suffered from a condition called haemolacria, that could cause tears mixed with blood.

Professor Vincenzo Cunsolo of the University of Catania and an international team harvested peptides and proteins from three rag paper letters, written in 1457 and 1475.

Penned to the rulers of Sibiu, a town in Romania, they were written by a man describing himself as ‘prince of the Transalpine regions’ and signed as Vlad Dracula.

‘Our proteomic data, although cannot be considered exhaustive alone, might indicate that, according to some stories, he probably suffered, at least in the last years of his life, from a pathological condition called haemolacria, that is, he could shed tears admixed with blood,’ said Professor Cunsolo.

‘Additionally, he also probably suffered from inflammatory processes of the respiratory tract and/or of the skin.

‘To our reckoning, this is the first time such research has been carried out and has helped to bring to the limelight the health status of Vlad Dracula the Impaler.

‘It cannot be denied that more medieval people may have touched these documents, but it is also presumable that the most prominent ancient proteins should be related to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who wrote and signed these letters.’

Some scholars have suggested Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad the Impaler. The ruler was notorious for cruel methods of punishing enemies, including impaling them on stakes.

The study is published in the journal ACS Analytical Chemistry.

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