KOYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 143 



A subject whicli at this time attracted geueral attention was the transfusion 

 rf blood from the veins of one animal to those of another as a means of restoring 

 hcuhli or prohsnging life. As usual, the most extravagant expectations were 

 indulged by the unr^'llecting in regard to the eflicacy of this process, and the 

 Society, rightly judging the verilication of its virtues to fall within their domain, 

 lifter trying with impunity the experiment of transfusion on that customary 

 victim of scieutiiic curiosity, the dog, set themselves in quest of a human sub- 

 ject for further investigation. It was first proposed to try the pi'actice upon 

 " some mad person in Bedlam," probably with a view to test the effects upon the 

 mental as well as bodily sanity, but the physician in charge of the hospital re- 

 fused his assent. A poor student was, however, soon found, who, for the price 

 of a guinea, consented to undergo the operation, and indicated a sheep as the 

 animal whose blood he was willing to receive. The experiment was conducted 

 at Arundel House, in the presence of the Society and of other distinguished in- 

 dividuals, and was attended with such encouraging circumstances as to lead to 

 its repetition some weeks afterwards, on which occasion eight ounces of human 

 blood were taken, and about fourteen ounces of sheep's blood injected. The 

 patient, Ave are told, was " well and merry" after the operation, his pulse and 

 appetite being better than before, but respecting the permanence of these good 

 results we arc Icit somewhat in the dark. The condition of the patient's mind, 

 as well before as after the experiment, may be judged of from the mystical 

 reason he assigned, when questioned why he had elected to have the blood of 

 a sheep transfused rather than that of some other creature : Sanguis ovis sym- 

 bollcam quayidan facultatcm hahet cutn sanguine Christi, quia Christus est 

 Agnus Dei. The Society had thus far met with better fortune than some of the 

 cotemporary inquirers in both Germany and France, where death had in more 

 than one instance been the result of similar proceedings, exposing those Avho 

 conducted them to the danger of prosecution for manslaughter. Tidings of 

 these disasters at once turned the current of public opinion in England, and led 

 to the abandonment of further investigation on the part of the savants. 



There can be no doubt that the inquisitive spirit of the Society, though often 

 directed to subjects which no longer appear either dignified or important, had 

 already exercised the happiest inliuence on the course and habits of public 

 thought. Inquiry was propagated, and a salutary scepticism everywhere man- 

 ifested its encroachments on the domain of popular delusion. Under this point 

 of view, the iustorian of the Society is justified in signalizing the fact that 

 although "during the civil wars upwards of eighty individuals were executed 

 in Sufiblk alone for supposed witchcraft, there were but two witches executed in 

 England after the Hoyai Society published their Transactions." A body Aviiich 

 at once prosecuted researches on the theory of eclipses, the nature of comets, 

 and the causes of pestilence, could afford but little countenance to the Avide- 

 spread delusion which associated the last of these phenomena in some myste- 

 rious concomitance with the two former. When even the scrupulous Boyle had 

 thought fit to give to one of his scientific treatises the title of The Sceptical 

 Chemist, there could be not much hope for alchemy and its attendant frauds. 

 In other fields, too, the habits of philosophical speculation Avhich, if the Royal 

 Society did not introduce it; at least eft'ectually promoted by inlluenc(^ and ex- 

 ample, gave rise toi-eforms Avliich, as Buckle remarks,* rendered the reign of the 

 mean and spiritless A'-oluptuary Charles II one of the brightest epoclis in the na- 

 tional annals, with reference to laws then passed and principles then established. 



The zeal of the Society for furthering and stimulating experimental inquiry 

 was manifested at an early period by the adoption of a resolution " that such 

 of the Fellows as regarded the Avelfare of the Society should be desired to oblige 



'History of Civilization in England, vol. I, p. 275. 



