Aug 3
Oh right, completely forgot about that one - that makes even more curious what the Countâs plan is since at this point only the captain is left. Does he plan to maneuver the ship himself? I hope we find out!
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I have been playing catch-up today and have finished everything apart from August. 
I wonder if Jonathan was successful in his escape? Now following the psychiatrist is also very interesting. The parts from the POV of the women is a nice break from the rest.
I think I might keep reading a month at a time. It works better for me to have a continuous story. 
Edit: Ok, I ended up reading up to August 4th as well, because I am curious whatâs happening on the ship.
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August 8
Well, the Count knows how to make a dramatic entrance! 
I like how the very nature of how this book is written based on journals and articles helps keep the mysterious air around the events that are happening, as itâs really hard to know how much control the Count did have over all the things happening.
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August 8
Now I really want a goofy misunderstanding-type movie where the Count is just some normal dude trying to immigrate, but keeps getting mistaken for a vampire the whole way.
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Aug 11
Geez Mina, how can you be so clumsy to prick poor Lucy not once but twice when pinning the shawl around her? Now poor Lucy has two red dots on her neck and sheâs never gonna be the same.
I also imagine the Count taking a relaxing night walk, running into a girl sleeping in a bench and going âoh nice, free food!â
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Aug 13
In which Lucy and Mina narrowly avoid catching rabies from an enormous bat. You guys might need to call pest controlâŚ
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Iâm caught up again after being behind for a week or two. 
I need to be really careful; weâre going to start hitting some action soon. Once everyone regroups, reading passages are going to be long and consistent.
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August 10:
Some of the âNew Womenâ writers will some day start an idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting. But I suppose the New Woman wonât condescend in future to accept; she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it, too! Thereâs some consolation in that.
Quite the modern take, I was surprised. 
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I am fully caught up again.
August 30:
In todayâs episode of âThrow the whole man awayâ:
Arthur says I am getting fat. 
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Sep 2
So as far as I can tell, Spanish van Helsing doesnât have an obvious accent. At least, not the obvious enough to a low level learnerâs eyes. Not sure if Iâm happy or sad; his accent was a big part of him for me when I read the English.
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Sep 9
I wonder how much of a new thing blood transfusions were when this book was written? Google tells me they were a thing a hundred years or two before Dracula was written, so I wonder if they wouldâve been considered old news like today, or a still rather radical treatment option?
We get a happy diary entry from Lucy today. 
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Sep 9
In particular, I noticed that Van Hellsing doesnât ask any of the possible donors nor Lucy what their blood type is, which is particularly important for a blood transfusion, as far as I understand.
It seems actual blood types and the possibly deadly hemolytic reaction (for incompatible blood types) were only started to be understood in 1901, so about 4 years after the novel was written.
From what I see in some articles, blood transfusions were made illegal in the Great Britain in the mid 17th century, and though I canât find exactly when they become legal again I highly doubt it was before the blood types were understood.
So yeah⌠blood transfusions in that time were probably not common, and probably illegal.
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historical stuff about transfusions
It looks like Dr James Blundell was doing experiments with transfusion as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage and published on them in the Lancet in 1829, so it canât have been illegal in the UK at that point. This article says that although it was made illegal in France it was never illegal in the UK â itâs more that the Royal Society decided to suspend experiments in that area, and what theyâd been trying had gathered a bad enough reputation that nobody really wanted to touch it as a research field. By the 19th century people were picking up the research again, though it remained risky without the knowledge of blood groups.
The Science Museum has some photos of the syringe etc Blundell used.
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Blood transfusions
Ah, thank you for the interesting info @qdsl and @pm215! That makes a lot of sense; I was wondering about the blood types as well. Iirc Dr. van Helsing doesnât really mention them, so he wouldâve been lucky. Either that or Lucy has vampire-d enough to be able to accept all the types regardless Those pictures of the medical instruments are very neat, and just a little scary, haha.
Sep 11
I wonder how Dr. van Helsing came to conclude that garlic would be effective in this particular case? Really makes you wonder the kind of experiences heâs seen in life.
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Sep 13
This day always gets me. 
Lucyâs mother has such good intentions, but itâs all the more heartbreaking when you see the bigger picture and the consequences of what sheâs doneâŚ
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Sep 18
My other favorite Dracula power, controlling wolves
The story of the wolf keeper at the zoo was pretty fun, including the accent.
After four transfusions itâs nothing but a miracle that Lucy is still aliveâŚ
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Sep 18
My Spanish version has footnotes included, and there was one after the latest transfusion saying that it was getting easier and faster for Lucy to restore her health after receiving blood; Iâve never thought about it before, but it does seem like a pretty good indication of just being borrowed time on her part at this point.
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so much to catch up on again.
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