TRANSFUSION. 287 
“ L’Ombre d’ Apollon, decouvrante les Abus, de cette pretendue 
Maniere de Guerir les Maladies par la Transfusion du Sang.” 
The wife of a madman requested Denys to perform the opera- 
tion of transfusion on her husband, which, being complied with, the 
state of the patient, it is said, was greatly improved ; a relapse 
followed, when transfusion was repeated with the like success. 
Again the madman fell into his former state, and at the urgent en- 
treaties of the wife, Denys was induced a third time to transfuse a 
small quantity of blood into the veins of his patient. The result 
was, that on the following morning the man died, and the wife re- 
fused to permit the body to be inspected ; and not having the means 
to defray the expenses of a funeral, she walked the streets of Paris, 
requesting alms of those she met for that purpose. This soon 
caused the death of the individual, with the circumstances con- 
nected with it, to be noised abroad. The enemies to transfusion 
had now a fine field open to their attacks : they neglected not this 
favourable opportunity, and many defamatory libels against the 
Faculty of Medicine followed. Denys insists that the woman was 
bribed to give false evidence concerning the death of her husband; 
be that as it may, the case came on before “ Monsieur le Lieutenant 
Criminel ” in April 1668, whose sentence was, that any person 
performing the operation of transfusion, without the proposition 
having been made, received, and approved by the Faculty of Me- 
dicine, should be sent to prison. It appeared subsequently, that 
the woman had administered a dose of arsenic to her husband. 
This affronted the dignity of the court physician : a trifling attempt 
was made to upset this decision ; but the subject shortly after 
coming under the consideration of the Chamber of Deputies, they 
put on such heavy restrictions, that the matter became gradually 
neglected, and, I might add, almost forgotten, till revived by Dr. 
Blundell a few years since. I may mention here, that in a paper 
published in the Bibliot. Univer., I think in 1821, by Provost and 
Dumas, entitled, “ Examen du Sang et de son Action,” & c., some 
remarks are made on transfusion Their view of the subject differs 
from Dr. Blundell in this particular, viz., that the fitness of the 
blood of one animal to the uses of another of a different species 
depends entirely on the formation of the globules. 
For instance, if we inject blood with circular globules into the 
vessels of a bird, whose blood contains globules of an elliptic shape, 
the animal ordinarily dies; violent nervous action coming on, 
which may be compared to what we observe when active poisons 
have been administered. They conclude, that transfusion on man 
ought to be condemned as absurd and dangerous, till we have a 
better knowledge of the active principles of the blood. 
