-Dracula by Bram Stoker, Ch. 11
Without an instant's notice he made straight at me. He had a dinner knife in his hand, and as I saw he was dangerous, I tried to keep the table between us. He was too quick and too strong for me, however, for before I could get my balance he had struck at me and cut my left wrist rather severely.
Before he could strike again, however, I got in my right hand and he was sprawling on his back on the floor. My wrist bled freely, and quite a little pool trickled on to the carpet. I saw that my friend was not intent on further effort, and occupied myself binding up my wrist, keeping a wary eye on the prostrate figure all the time. When the attendants rushed in, and we turned our attention to him, his employment positively sickened me. He was lying on his belly on the floor licking up, like a dog, the blood which had fallen from my wounded wrist. He was easily secured, and to my surprise, went with the attendants quite placidly, simply repeating over and over again, "The blood is the life! The blood is the life!"
(9) The Eternal said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (10) Then God said, “What have you done? Hark, your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground!
(3) Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these. (4) You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it. (5) But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every person for that of their fellow! (6) Whoever sheds the blood of a human, By humans shall their blood be shed; For in the Divine image Did God make humanity.
(23) But be strong that you do not partake of the blood; for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the life with the flesh.
Leviticus as Literature by Mary Douglas
In the rite of atonement the blood of the sacrificed animal is used to anoint the altar, to sprinkle on it, and then it is poured out at the base. The body of the member of the congregation who must never eat meat with blood in it parallels again the altar which does not have blood burnt on it. The reason for not eating the blood is simply, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life’ (Lev 17: 11), and again: ‘the life of every creature is the blood of it’ (17: 14). Chapter 17 is nearly all about blood: ‘I have given it to you to make atonement for your own lives.’ Note again that this is the second half of Leviticus, but these enlargements of context and declarations of sameness (life = blood) are not causal explanations. They locate the rule in a series of associated classifications.
This is the context of Genesis and the creation that rationalizes the laws of purity. God made life, the life of all creatures belongs to God. If he had not given or assigned the blood of sacrifice for that specific purpose there could be no atonement. The blood doctrine is the context for the laws against touching the carcasses of animals defined as unable to be consecrated. Their blood (which carries the life) belongs to God, his laws protect them as the laws of a feudal lord protect the lives of his vassals.