The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-01
TrantfIsfOn or Blood.

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IransfJsiOn or Blood.
Truly science has, as was recently
said by one Of It's eminen. vOtaries,
sits romantic side" It's history pre-
sents not a few deeds OF heroism and
selfsacrifice; its results have not sell
dom been attained by suffering volun-
tarily inf cted, and have now and
then cost the lives Of willing victims.
The young Berlin doctor, who, when a
deadly Contagious distemper was
ravagIng the poorer households of that
city, thought he had discovered i
method for It's cure, aud, knowing tina.
is test might be fatal, nevertheless
boldly trieh it upon himself, and who,
as he lay dying from its effects, jotted
down his observations of its action on
his system until within nine minutes of
his departure from earth, was a hero
TO whom SIR Philip Sidney would
have dCtfed his hat. A deed scarcely
less noble, as il involved self-sacrifice,
has just been done at Manchester by a
young English me iical student. II
appears that a weakly young man had
leg amputatcd at the hospital, which
made him so feeble that he was not
likely to recover. He was fas. sinking
when the hospital doctor declared
that there was bat one possible
way of saving him. Into the
patients langHId veins must De
transfused II quantity of werm
blood from a vigorous, living man. i
young student, who heard this, at once
stepped forward and offered his own
blood for the purpose. A pint Of the
vital fluid was thereupon taken from
him, and sent circulating through the
arm and the body of the monbund
youth. Within two hours he revived.
recognized people, and was pronounced
on the way to recovery.
The young medical student, to whose
unseliish heroism this good result was
due, may possibly have worked even
| better than he know. 1t was long u
matter of discussion and doubt wheth
er this operation and tran fusion could
really be performed so as to transfer
| the vital vlgOr of one person to anOth.
or. 1t is not at all new idea, indeed,
for we read OF its having been tried oa
certain pope four centuries ago, thre,
young men being compelled to sacri
| flee their lives in order that the de
crepit monarch might renew his youth
but the experiment failed. The eX
pertinent has been tried many times,
and in different countries; and for thu
past half century the practIcability o
TRANSMISSION has been generally admit
ted by the profession. The difficulty
is, to successfully effect it; but 1t i
well known that the blood of animal
has been again and again transfused
to the veins of human beings with the
best physical results.
OF course the idea of TRANSMISSION
gives rise to many amusing faDcies
Can you make an old man young, {
cross man amiable, a coward brave, q
nervous, phlegmatlc, by exchanging
the vital fluid in the VEINS Is there /
modIcum of sober truth in Edmund
About's funny cOnceit about the "nOsC
of notary % The blood of lambs
is sometimes used in the operation Of
TRANSMISSION; do the doctors find the
patients thereafter more lamb-like
How gratifying it would be if, by
merely vivisecting the gentle denizen
of the pasture, and transferring is
blood to mortal veins, we could trans.
form the uncomfortable tcmpeTs
around US into perennial docility
We fear, however, that psychological
results are not to be attained by this
very material process. Very much
will be gained, however, if we can re-
store the Tuddiness to pallid cheeks
and the strength to lettering body
if we can see the consumptiyC
revive under the circulation q
Il healthy blood yielded to lin
by the selfsacrilice of another, a.
the falnting vampire revives under the
moons rays; and if the effects o.
those horrible, sudden hemorhage!
which end IN abrupt death from mere
loss of blood can be obvlated by
prompt TRANSMISSION. 1t may not Et
that the fountain of perpetual. youth il
to be found yelling up from the hear
of ones neighbor, but the gift o
health from one mortal body to an
other has d certain poetry about i
scarcely less pleasing to the fancy thai
the ancient fable, being significant o
human self-sacnfice, a noble emotion il
which the ancient fate was wanting