166 Memoirs of Erasmus Darwin, M.D. 



Oiled silk. Clysters of broth. Warm bath of broth. Trans- 

 fusion of blood into a vein three or four ounces a day ? 



I directed a young woman about twenty-two years of age, 

 to be fed with new milk put into a bladder, which was tied 

 to a catheter, and introduced beyond the stricture in her, 

 throat ; after a few days her spirits sunk, and she refused to 

 use it further, and died. Above thirty years ago I proposed 

 to an old gentleman, whose throat was entirely impervious, to, 

 supply him with a few ounces of blood daily from an ass, 

 or from the human animal, who is still more patient and 

 tractable, in the following manner : To fix a silver pipe 

 about an inch long to each extremity of a chicken's gut, the 

 part between the two silver ends to be measured by filling it 

 with warm water ; to put one end into the vein of a person 

 hired for that purpose, so as to receive the blood returning 

 from the extremity ; and when the gut was quite full, and 

 the blood running through the other silver end, to introduce 

 that end into the vein of the patient upwards towards the 

 heart, so as to admit no air along with the blood. And 

 lastly, to support the gut and silver ends on a water plate, 

 filled with water of ninety-eight degrees of heat, and to 

 measure how many ounces of blood was introduced by pass- 

 ing the finger, so as to compress the gut, from the receiving 

 pipe to ihe delivering pipe ; and thence to determine how 

 many gut-fulls were given from the healthy person to the 



patient. Mr„ considered a day on this proposal, and 



then another day, and at length answered, that " he now 

 found himself near the house of death ; and that if he could 

 return, he was now too old to have much enjoy-ment of life; 

 and therefore he wished rather to proceed to the end of that 

 journey, which he was now so near, and which he must at 

 all events soon go, than return for so short a time." He 

 lived but a few days afterwards, and seemed quite careless 

 and easy about the matter. 



[To be continued.] 



pax. 4 



