The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-05-21
BLOOD TRANSMISSION.
The Remarkable Case of Gen. Blai

The Rem rECabIe Case of Gen. Blair.
The TRANSMISSION of healthy blood into
the veins of Gen Frank P. Blair-Iong
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 a little
less than four ounces, the patient re-
naming almost insensible, and APP
parently unconscious. At the third,
and so far, the last attempt, five ounces
of fresh blood were successfully trans
farred, and the patient was so far recOv-
cred as to watch the operation with
great interest, to articulate a 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 slumber, since
which no account of his condition has
been received.
Encouraging a. these symptoms seem,
too much must not be hoped from them.
It unfortunately the record of the earlier
experiments of this class that the first
f1attering Improvement in the patients
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. It is commonly
supposed that 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 n1OduS Operdndj
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 something
reliable, and very useful in its limited
| way. Along in the early part of this
[ CCL1GlllJ LIZ 4O4IlHIC4A L4oCOfCACN1 W Wldlb
uses the operation could advantageously
! be put, what were prerequisite to its
| success, and what incidents were dan
! gerOus. One of his most important
| discoveries was that the TRANSMISSION was
most likely to be successful where the
cOrpuscles of the two blOOds 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 it's 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
| bl rod for itself.
! Since these experiments of DR.. Blum
dell there have been no material adj
vances in the ant except the improve
ment of instruments with view to the
exclusion of air and the maintenance of
an equitable temperature. OF late,
! however, there seems to have been a
revival in the hospitals of the belief
that 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