Jackson's "different blood" theory is what we now know as ABO blood typing. It was formally discovered by Dr Karl Landsteiner in 1900, three years after this episode is set.
References to Bram Stoker's novel Dracula are used to bookend the episode not simply because a tale of vampires is suitable for setting the scene regarding murder via exsanguination. In the novel from 1897 the doctor character Van Helsing performs transfusions on a young woman named Lucy who has been partially drained by a vampire.
Transfusion science was new at the time, and Stoker may have learned of it from one of his physician brothers. Because blood typing was not yet discovered, doctors did not know why some transfusion patients died or suffered other reactions, so in this case Lucy was lucky to tolerate transfusions from multiple donors (unfortunately though, Dracula did get her in the end!)
Transfusion science was new at the time, and Stoker may have learned of it from one of his physician brothers. Because blood typing was not yet discovered, doctors did not know why some transfusion patients died or suffered other reactions, so in this case Lucy was lucky to tolerate transfusions from multiple donors (unfortunately though, Dracula did get her in the end!)
The episode title "A White World Made Red," is spoken by Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg). "All I could do was watch as blood spread through the eyes. A white world made red."
The song Jackson sings to his son is a traditional American folk song variously called "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", "In the Pines," "My Girl," or "Black Girl." Its exact time of origin is uncertain but it had been circulating in the U.S., starting in Appalachia, for at least a decade before the early 1880s when Jackson and Susan fled for England. It is perhaps best known from recordings made in 1946 by the Black American musician Lead Belly, though modern recordings like that by Nirvana have kept the tune in circulation among younger enthusiasts. Like any folk song it has shifting lyrics and meanings, but it can be about exploitation of poor workers, infidelity, sexual assault, or death of a loved one.