What is porphyria, why is it called “The Vampire Disease”?
Porphyria is actually a group of diseases, all pertaining to the metabolism of porphyrin rings that, along with iron, are responsible for the oxygen-carrying properties of hemoglobin–the red ingredient in blood. Porphyria is a very rare genetic disorder and is not contagious. It may have developed among the European nobility due to inbreeding. In a 1964 article in the _Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine_, it was proposed that porphyria might be an explanation for werewolf legends. Twenty-one years later, chemist David Dolphin presented a paper at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, proposing that porphyria might explain vampire legends. It was later refuted by other professionals, due to the fact that the only form of porphyria which could have been likened to vampirism was the rarest form, occurring in very few people throughout history. So why the link between porphyria and vampirism? One of the varieties of porphyria, congenital erythropo
