Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula, is an aged polymath Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "MD, D.Ph., D.Litt., etc.", indicating a wealth of experience, education and expertise. The character is best known through many adaptations of the story as a vampire hunter and the archenemy of Count Dracula, and the prototypical and the archetypical parapsychologist in subsequent works of paranormal fiction.