412 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



THE BLOOD. 



It IS a natural question, and often asked, but 

 difficult to answer, what quantihj of blood circu- 

 lates every minute in our bodies ? The many es- 

 timates which have been made need not here be 

 given ; only those of Lehmann, Weber and Bis- 

 choff now command general attention. Lehmann 

 says that his friend Weber aided him in deter- 

 mining the quantity of blood in two decapitated 

 criminals. The weight of the whole blood was 

 to that of the body nearly in the ratio of 1 to 8. 

 It is obvious from the account of the experiment 

 that only an approximation could be arrived at. 

 And BischoflF's more recent investigations on the 

 body of a criminal, carefully weighed before and 

 after decapitation, lead to the conclusion that the 

 blood amounted to ^k lbs., or exactly one-four- 

 teenth of the ichole body. This nearly corres- 

 ponds with his former investigations, which gave 

 the weight as one-thirteenth of the whole body. 

 If we say ten pounds for an adult healthy man, 

 we shall probably be as near the mark as possi- 

 ble. The quantity, however, necessarily varies 

 in different persons, and seems from some calcu- 

 lations to be greater in women than in men. In 

 the seal its quantity is enormous, surpassing that 

 of all other animals, man included. 



In former days, blood-letting was one of the 

 "heroic arms" of medical practice ; and it is 

 sometimes almost appalling to read of the ex- 

 ploits of practitioners. Haller mentions the case 

 of a hysterical woman who was bled one thous- 

 and and twenty times in the space of nineteen 

 years ; and a girl at Pisa is said to have been 

 bled once a day, or once every other day, during 

 several years. A third case he mentions of a 

 young man who lost seventy-five pounds of blood 

 in ten days ; so that if we reckon ten pounds as 

 the utmost which the body contains at any given 

 period, it is clear that this young man's loss must 

 have been repaired almost immediately. In truth, 

 the blood is incessantly being abstracted and re- 

 placed during the ordinary processes of life. — 

 Were it not continually renewed, it would soon 

 vanish altogether, like water disappearing in sand. 

 The hungry tissues momently snatch at its mate- 

 rials as it hurries through them, and the active 

 absorbents momently pour fresh materials into it. 



In contemplating the loss of blood from wounds 

 or hoemorrhage, and in noting how the vital pow- 

 ers ebb as the blood flows out, we are naturally 

 led to ask whether the peril may not be avoided 

 by pouring in fresh blood. The idea of transfu- 

 sion is indeed very ancient. But the ancients, 

 in spite of their facile credulity as to the effect 

 of any physiological experiments, were in no 

 condition to make the experiment. They were 

 too unacquainted with physiology, and with the 

 art of experiment, to know how to set about 

 transfusion. Not until the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century had a preparation been made for 

 such a trial. The expemiments of Boyle, Graaf 

 and Fracassati, on the injection of various sub- 

 stances into "the veins of animals, were crowned 

 by those of Lower, who, in 1665, injected blood 

 into the veins of a dog. Two years later a bold- 

 er attempt was made on man. A French mathe- 

 matician, Denis, assisted by a surgeon, having 

 repeated with success the experiments of Lower, 

 resolved to extend the new idea. It was difficult 

 to get a human patient on whom the plan could 



be tried ; but one evening a madman arrived in 

 Paris quite naked, and he was daringly seized by 

 Denis as the fitting subject for the new experi- 

 ment. Eight ounces of calfs blood were trans- 

 fused into his veins. That night he slept well. 

 The experiment was repeated on the succeeding 

 day ; he slept quietly, and awoke sane ! 



Great was the sensation produced by this suc- 

 cess. Lower and King were emboldened to re- 

 peat it in London. They found a healthy man 

 willing to have some blood drawn from him, and 

 replaced by that of a sheep. He felt the warm 

 stream pouring in, and declared it was so pleas- 

 ant that they might repeat the experiment. The 

 tidings flew over Europe. In Italy and Germa- 

 ny the plan was repeated, and it now seemed as 

 if transfusion would become once more one of 

 the "heroic arms" of medicine. These were soon 

 dashed. The patient on whom Denis had ope- 

 rated again went mad, was again treated with 

 transfusion, and died during the operation. The 

 son of the Swedish minister, who had been ben- 

 efited by one transfusion, perished after a s^econd. 

 A third death was assigned to a similar cause ; 

 and in April, 1668, the Parliament of Paris made 

 it criminal to attempt transfusion, except with 

 the consent of the Faculty of Paris. Thus the 

 whole thing fell into discredit, to be revived again 

 in our own day, and to be placed at last on a sci- 

 entific basis. 



It will immediately occur to the physiologist 

 who reads the accounts of these experiments, 

 that transfusion was effected on the supposition 

 that the blood of all quadrupeds was the same, 

 and that it was indifferent whether a man re- 

 ceived the blood of another man, or of a sheep 

 or calf. This supposition was altogether erro- 

 neous. The more rigorous investigations of the 

 moderns have established that only the blood of 

 animals of the same species can be transfused 

 in large quantities without fatal results. The 

 blood of a horse is poison in the veins of a dog ; 

 the blood of a sheep is poison in the veins of a 

 cat ; but the blood of a horse will revive the 

 fainting ass. From this it follows, that when 

 transfusion is practised on human beings, human 

 blood must be employed ; and so employed, the 

 practice is in some urgent cases not only safe, but 

 forms the sole remedy. Blundell has the glory 

 of having revived and vindicated this practice, 

 and he has seen his idea amply confirmed. Be- 

 rard cites fifteen distinct cases of haemorrhage in 

 which tranfusion has saved life. — Blackwood's 

 Magazine. 



THE ADVENTURES OF A SEED. 



Nature lias arranged that plants growing even 

 in the burning desert shall be provided with 

 enough of water for the generation of their seeds ; 

 and one of the most remarkable instances of this 

 fact is furnished by the Anastatica Hierochuntica, 

 or rose of Jericho, which grows in the arid wastes 

 of Egypt, Palestine and Barbary ; upon the roofs 

 of houses and aMong rubbish in Syria ; and in 

 the sandy deserts of Arabia. This little plant, 

 scarcely six inches high, after the flowering sea- 

 son loses its leaves, and dries up into the form 

 of a ball. In this condition it is uprooted by 

 the winds, and is carried, blown, or tossed across 

 the desert ^into the sea. When the little plant 

 feels the contact of the water, it unfolds itself, 



