209 



The experiments on the subject of the transfusion of blood were repeat- 

 ed, but without success, at the Academy of Sciences. Perault oppos d 

 this new method, and showed that it was very difficult for one animal to 

 exist on the blood of another, that this fluid, though apparently the same 

 in animals of the same age, was as different from it as the features of their 

 face, their temper, See. that an extraneous fluid was thus introduced, which 

 conveying to the organs an irritation to which they were not accustomed, 

 must disorder their action, in various ways 5 that if, as an objection to 

 what he had said, they should bring forward what takes place in graft- 

 ing, in which the sap of one tree nourishes another of a different kind, he 

 would answer, that vegetation does not depend on so complicated, nor on 

 so delicate a mechanism, as the nutrition of animals ; that a hut may be 

 formed of all kinds of stones taken at random ; but that to build a palace, 

 stones must be designedly shaped for the purpose, so that a stone destined 

 for an arch-, will not do for a wall, nor even for another arch*. 



It would be easy, by means of a curved tube, to transfuse the arterial 

 blood of an animal, from a wound in its carotid artery, into the saphena 

 vein of a man, into the internal jugular, .or into some of the cutaneous 

 veins of the fore arm ; but it is to be presumed from experiments on 

 living animals, that it would be very difficult to transfuse blood into the. 

 arteries, as these vessels, filled with blood, during life, do not yield to a 

 greater distention. The capillaries, in which the arteries terminate, be- 

 come corrugated, and refuse to transmit a fluid which does riot act upon 

 them, according to their wonted sensibility. Such was the result of the 

 experiments of Professor Buniva: he observed, in a living calf, that the 

 vessels did not transmit freely the fluid which was forced into them, till 

 the instant when the animal was killed, by dividing the upper part of the 

 spinal marrow. Attempts have been made to turn to useful purposes 

 these experiments on transfusing, by limiting the process to the injecting 

 of medicinal substances into the veins. It is singular, that the moment a 

 fluid is injected into the veins of an animal, it endeavours to perform mo- 

 tions of deglutition, as if the substance had been taken in at the mouth. 

 All these attempts have been too few in number, and are not sufficiently- 

 authenticated to justify their application to the human subject. But 

 there is every reason to believe, that, even with the utmost care, the life 

 of those who should submit to them, would be endangered : so that it is 

 at once humane and prudent to abstain from themf. 



Animals bled till they fainted, died if left alone, or when water or serum of blood (at 

 100 Fahr.) was injected into their veins If on the contrary blood from an animal of the 

 same species was injected, every portion of blood thrown in re-animated the exhausted 

 animal. When it had received as much as it had lost, it breathed freely, took food, and 

 regained its health. When the injected blood was from an animal of different species, 

 but having 1 globules of the same form, the relief was merely partial, and the animal 

 could seldom be kept alive for more than six days, diminishing in temperature ^yith 

 remarkable rapidity. Birds die in most violent nervous affections, as if acted on by viru- 

 lent poison, when blood having spherical globules is injected. This consequence is 

 seen even where the quantity of blood lost is small. In very many cases, ca and rab- 

 bits were restored for some days by injecting the blood of cows or sheep/ even when 

 the injection was not made till twelve or twenty -four hours from the extraction of the 

 blood from the latter. The blood was kept in a fluid state in a cool place, either 

 by taking away a certain quantity of fibrine or adding 1000th part of caustic soda. 

 When sheep's blood was injected into the veins of ducks, they died after rapid and 



strong convulsions See Bibliotheque Universelle ; Journal de Physique, Sept. 1821. 



Phil. Med. Jour. p. 193. vol. v. Godman. 



* Academic Royale des Sciences, 1667, page 37. 



t See APPENDIX, Note B B. 



