The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-04-01
riculture, for its observance in way
that will give it practical utility.
TRANSMISSION OF Blood.

man beings the operation is resorted to |
to reinvigorate the exhausted system, or
toavert death from severe hemorrhage. |
There are indications that TRANSMISSION
was practiced by the Romans as early
as about the beginning of the Christian
era. The earliest authentic case on
record is said to be that of Pope Inno-
cent VIII, in 1892. The old pontiff's
vital powers were exhausted. All
means to restore them had failed, when
Jew doctor proposed to awaken him
from a state of death-like somnolency
by transfusing into his veins the blood
of young person, an experiment that
had hitherto been tried only on ami
mails. The attempt, thrice repeated at
the expense of the lives of three boys,
was unsuccessful. Two centuries later,
in France, a young man who had been
weakened, and who had become torpid
by bleeding, was restored to health by
an injection of the blood of calves into
his veins. This young man seems to
have had an ever-lengthening train of
descendants. Similar experiments and
operations were made at about the
same time, but the process seems to
have fallen into obscurity due, it is be-
lieved, to the use of the blood of calves
and sheep, instead of human beings,
and partly to the selection of hopeless
cases of age and decrepitude for its APP
plication. AT the present time the
operation is sometimes undertaken in
certain cases of profuse hemorrhage
after other means have failed and when
life is on the verge of extinction. An
English physician records thirty-nine
cases, in twenty-nine of which the pa
TENTS life was rescued from apparently
hopeless conditions. A German pro-
fessor claims to have permanently
saved, by TRANSMISSION, forty-three out
of fifty-seven cases, and, of the remain
ing fourteen, seven were temporarily
rescued. From four to six ounces of
blood, taken from the arm of strong
and healthy man who could spare it,
were generally sufficient, but more was
sometimes required. Milk has also
been used for TRANSMISSION, and by some
surgeons is preferred to blood, since
there is no danger of coagulation and
the fluid is allied to chyle, the mate
rial of which nature makes blood. A
New York physician, writing upon the
subject, says tactical injections may also
be employed in Asiatic cholera, typhoid
fever, pernicious bloodlessness, as a
substitute for diseased blood, and gen.
orally in disorders which greatly depre-
ciate the blood. Attention has been
recently directed to this subject by the
publication of the results of some won
derful experiments by Mr.. G. A. Ar
mitage in Denver, Colorado, in restor-
ing animal life by TRANSMISSION of blood.
The Denver Daily Ne,cS says:
The subject operated upon was medium
sized terrier dog. 1t was securely tied, and
an incision made in an artery in his neck,
Nv
certainly passed through all the symptoms
of dying, and soon after the last blood issued
from the wound his frame became fixed and
rigid and his eyes showed the senseless
glare of death. The room was kept at a
temperature of seventy degrees Fahrenheit,
while the dog lay for three hours dead. BY
this time he had become very stiff and cold
He was now placed in warm water bath
that was constantly maintained at a tenn
perature OF one hundred five degrees, and
as he became plant his limbs were gently
worked about and his whole body rendered
supple A half pint of hot water was now
passed into his stomach through hard rub
Der tube that was forced down his Gsopha-
gus When this was accomplished, the
mouth of rubber tube, attached to bel
lows, was introduced into his windpipe, and
as the bellows were provided with a double
valve, by which the air could be with
drawn as well as inhaled, the dogs
nose was securely fastened up. A large
and powerful Newfoundland dog that had
been obtained for the purpose had been
tied near by and was now bled, while the
attending surgeon proceeded to adjust the
transfusing apparatus, and began to slowly
inject the live dogs blood into the dead
| one simultaneously Mr.. Armitage began
slowly working the respiratory bellows
while | kept rubbing the animal and bend.
{ ing his limbs and body to facilitate circula-
ton We could not have been more anxious
dDOut Jut ISSUE VI IL buty Hdu
been made on human being instead of q
dumb brute. When pint of fresh blood
had been injected, could see some change
about the eyes of the dog. But no one
spoke. One thought was common to all
would life come back? In few moments
more there was certainly convulsive tremOl
noticeable in the body. Mr.. Armitage, in
undisguised excitement said to the surgeon
Press the blood" In a minute or two
: more the dog gasps, and soon attempts tC
| eject the respiratory tube, which was &C
> cordingly Withdrawn. This was followed
by gasps and catching of the breath
I while the eyes grow brighter and more
: natural. The rubbing and blood-injecting
were yet applied, and the dog was strug
; Cling as if in a fit. But his efforts soon be
, came less violent, and he begins low
, whine. A compress was now placed on the
l artery, and in twenty-five minutes after the
, first blood was injected, he sits up, after
having been dead three hours and twenty
e minutes. The dog then drank broth tina
had been prepared for him in case of his re
vival, and soon got up and walked about
: He was furnished a comfortable bed nea
the stove, and from this time forward his re
covery was so rapid that in two days HI
: was turned out to run the streets. He il
. now rugged character in good health with
Z seemingly, no bad remembrance of hi
I resurrection.
e A second experiment was made upol
o a calf six weeks old. The animal wa
G bled to death and left for twelve hour