News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-19
BLOOD TRANSMISSION.
A STRANGE REMEDY THATw AS
ONCE IN REPUTE.

A STRANGE REMEDY THATw AS
ONCE IN REPUTE.
Notable Cases of Attempted Trans
fusion of the Persons Blood into
Another's Veins-Using the Blood
of Oxen.
The present discussions respecting the
newly found elixir of DR.. Brown
Sequard recall to the mind what has
been said and done during the last four
centuries in regard to the direct trans
fusion of the blood, and the kindred
therapeutic methods that prescribed
blood d-drinking and blood bathing for
the use of certain patients.
There are legends of masculine and
feminine tyrants who, in ancient times,
tried, like Tiberius and others, to re-
cover strength and health through
drinking or bathing in the blood of
>yoang boys and girls they caused to be
put to death But the first authenti-
Gated case of attempted blood transfu-
sion was in 1892, the year America was
discovered. After Pope Innocent VII,
who suffered from poverty of blood"
that caused him frequent faints and
continuous drowsiness, had been de-
cared incurable by his six physicians,
Cardinal asked them whether he could
not be saved by having the blood of
some strong individual transfused into
his veins. The doctors answered that
this might happen, but that, on account
of possible consequences, the Pope's
consent should first be obtained. The
pontiff consented, after having been
told that the operation would consist in
introducing into his veins the blood eff
n healthy person through the medium
of thin tube which would pump out
the blood and introduce it instantly and
painlessly in the vein, because the
puncture of the vein would he very
light, and very small a'so would be the
extremity of the tube introduced into
it. A strong and healthy boy, of the
Campagna Romano, or country around
Rome, was picked out, but the opera
tion could not be accomplished. Tho
doctors were not used to it. They tried
uselessly with second sui; ;ect. A third
one, big fellow looking like a gladia-
tor, offered himself The blood flowed
easily from his veins into the tube, and
thence into the vein of the Pope. But
the latter became armed and withdrew
his arm suddenly, so that mir entered
the opened vein. This is said to have
caused his death. Such is the legend.
A few years later the same Cardinal
who had advised this weird remedy for
the Pope lay dying from a hemorrhage
which nothing could stop. He caused q
young Florentine boy to give him por
tion of his b ood, on payment of 1000
scudi, or about $4,000, q pretty large
sum for that time, yet not too dear, if
the tale is to be trusted, since the Cardi-
nal recovered and lived for twenty years
longer.
In the seventeenth century another
Italian physician is said to have "oper-
ated" the TRANSMISSION of blood upon
many patients, in particular upon q
cOnsumptive person, who "was bled at
first in order to draw ont all the bad
blood" The result, says the chronicler
of the time, was admirably satisfactory
in this case, as in many others; all the
patients recovered health and livc1 for
many years, celebrating the mary eAou'
I physician.
! Blood TRANSMISSION entered from tina
moment, for the time being, into tn,
regular methods of medicine rs theI
practlced; and doctors from England
| France, Spain, ETC., went to Italy {.
study the system, while patients O
wealth and great renown caused them
selves to be carried to Padua, Florenc,
and Rome, where they consulted tht
great doctors. The selling of blood
came to he lucrative business.
In the middle of the eighteenth cen.
fury they began to sub ititute, rs being
much preferable, the blood of bulls and
oxen for that of men. This system has
never quite gone out, even in our DAYS.
But there are still some discrepancies
respecting the best method of making
the operation. Miguel Rossi, of Mo-
dena, was opposed to the school at
Bologna, which claimed that the patient
must be bled before being submitted to
the TRANSMISSION of blood. Professor
ROssi declared this to be dangerous, and
at best useless, except in case of poison
ing. He aimed that the blood vessels
are capable of containing more than
double the usual quantity of blood.
Later on discussion was rife also in re-
gard to the method, then popular, of
Juan Pole, who, instead of transferring
the blood into the veins of the arm, as
usually done, transfused it from the
artery Of the arm of the blood giyer in
to the peritoneum of the patient. 1t
was only between the years 1916 and
1880 that settled rules and practice were
adopted by physicians in regard to
blood TRANSMISSION, either i'll the veins or
the peritoneum. There are medical
statistics that go to show cures, through
this method, of rs per cent in cases of
hemorrhage, lockjaw, phthisis, malarial
feyers, anamia and blood poisoning.
AS to the practice of drinking blood
and bathing in it, in order to recover
health and beautify the complexion, it
is as ancient as the world itself No
matter how repulsive the idea, it is said
that people soon get &C .ustomed to it,
and for some it becomes passion. For
this purpose, if reports may be trusted,
the slaughter of every city are
more or less frequented by gentlemen,
ladies and children; and as to New
York, it is claimed that the great and
nearly unique rendezvous of the blood
drinking invalids is in the slaughter
houses of Jersey City.-[New York
Tribune.