The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-05-27
BLOOD TRANSMISSION.



The TRANSMISSION of healthy blood into
the veins of Gen Frank P. Blair-long
lying in a critical condition, and finding
no relief from other treatment-has
undoubtedly been followed by great,
even if temporary, relief. At the first
operation an ounce and a half was
transferred, and at the second little
less than four ounces, the patient re-
naming almost insensible, and APP
parentIy unconscious. At the third,
and so far, the last attempt, five ounces
of II ash blood were successfully trans
ferred, and the patient was so far recov
cred as to watch the operation with
great interest, to arsiculate few words
for the first time in many days, and to
move a paralytic arm that had been
helpless for weeks. Shortly after, he
fell into a refreshing slunber, since
which no account of h $ condition has
been received.
Encouraging az these symptoms seem,
too much must not be hoped from them.
1t unfortunately the record of the earlier
! experiments of this class that the first
| flattering improvement in the patient g
health was too often followed by a
speedy and fatal relapse. Few novelties
| In therapeutics have created SO much
/ excitement in their day as this very one,
and yet it is so ancient that its origin
can not be determined. 1t is commonly
| supposed that a passage in Ovid refers
! to the operation, and certainly it was
described in full by Libavias as early
as 1915. At one time excitement fairly
ran riot over it, and the belief was
| common among the profession that
! some changes in the D1O0llIs opeTGHdi
would result in making it the fountain
of perpetual life.
But the fever passed away from the
| fact that those operated upon would in
considerably insist upon dying instead
| of getting well, and, finally, public
| opinion passed from one extreme to the
! other. Upon the death of Baron Bond,
| of Sweden, under the operation, the
/ French Parliament came down upon the
| practice with prohibition under heavy
! penalties; and a few years later, the
pope, rarely behing hand with prohibi-
| tiOns where science is concerned, fulmi-
mated an edict prescribing any attempts
of the kind.
Thus presented, of course the practice
lived, and lived to become somethin 2
reliable, ard very useful in its limited
way. Along in the early part of this
century DR.. Blundell discovered to what
uses the operation could advantageously
be put, what were prerequisite to its
succe SIS, and what incidents were dan
! gerOus. One of his most important
discoveries was that the TRANSMISSION as
most likely to be successful where the
! cOrpusc)es of the two bIoods mingled
were of equal or nearly equal size and
that it was certain to be fatal if they
were of different kinds, as, for instance,
between birds and quadrupeds. He
limited its main uses, also, to such cases
as where death was threatened through
! excessive loss of blood from any cause,
surgical or otherwise, finding that the
vitality was much less tried by the trans
fusion than by the task of making new
blood for itself.
Since these experiments of DIR. Blum
| dell there have been no material ad-
vances in the art except the improve
ment of instruments with a view to the
exclusion of air and the maintenance of
an equitable temperature. OF late,
however, there seems to have been a
revival IL the hospitals of the belief
that a larger domain rightly belonged
to the practice if truly pursued and OF
this later awakening the Blair case is
one of the first Importance. The re-
suits will be awaited with great inter
est, not only by the friends of the pa
tient, but by those concerned in the
bearing of the case upon the world at
large Cincinnati Times.