ON THE TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD. 679 



ON THE TBANSFUSION OF BLOOD. 



By GUSTAVE LEMATTRE. 



' TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, BY A. R. MACDONOUGH, ESQ. 



IN all ages the most different opinions as to the seat and the princi- 

 ple of life have been expressed ; yet, the systems bequeathed to 

 us by the ancients on this subject contain a general belief, simple 

 enough to be very widely shared, and seemingly well founded enough 

 to endure for centuries. One fact of commonest observation death 

 resulting from haemorrhage gave rise to the notion that life dwells 

 solely in the blood. Homer's heroes breathed out their souls with 

 their blood ; among the Hebrews, as among the Greeks, offering the 

 sacrifice of a life, and shedding the blood of a victim, were equivalent 

 expressions. On this point the religions of the West have consecrated 

 the belief of all ages and all people ; a verse in Leviticus thus sums it 

 up : " The life of all flesh is in the blood." 



From Galen to Harvey, men of science supposed that the heart 

 only sends out the fluid of the blood from the centre to the surface. 

 In their theories, the blood was incessantly formed and renewed within 

 the liver, and was impelled by centrifugal force into the veins and ar- 

 teries alike. Harvey first demonstrated that the blood returned in its 

 course. " It moves," he said, " in the same circle, as the planets all 

 describe the same orbit in moving through space." The idea of the 

 transfusion of blood takes its starting-point from the discovery of 

 Harvey. As soon as it was known that the blood can return to the 

 heart, and be taken up again by the vessels, what was more natural 

 than to seek to introduce it into a diseased body ? Is not the blood 

 still regarded as the sole principle of life, as it was in the early ages 

 of medicine ? And, since it can be transfused in kind, we shall be able 

 to restore health, to heal disorders, perhaps, even to lengthen life. In 

 a moment of pride the human mind believes it has penetrated the secret 

 of life, and supposes that henceforward it will be its master. The 

 most famous alchemists of the middle ages never surrendered them- 

 selves to hopes so wild. Besides, the sixteenth and seventeenth cen* 

 turies saw the birth of so many discoveries in natural sciences, that 

 nothing seemed impossible. The schools of medicine enter with fever- 

 ish ardor on these questions, so full of promise ; but, amid the light 

 that bursts upon them, they often neglect that severe observation of 

 facts which led to the discovery of the circulation. Physicians of that 

 day trouble themselves very little with inquiries whether the ancient 

 notions about the blood are true or false ; they accept them without 

 reserve, and publish them abroad with those forms of discussion and 

 those obsolete principles which brought upon them the well-deserved 



