“I attributed all these changes to the great evacuations of blood, the Physitians had been oblig’d to make for saving his life, and I perswaded myself that the little they had left him was extreamly incrustated [? incrassated] by the ardour of the fever.... Accordingly my conjecture was confirmed by our opening one of his Veins, for we beheld a blood so black and thick issue forth, that it could hardly form itself into a thread to fall into the porringer. We took about three ounces at five of the Clock in the morning, and at the same time we brought a Lamb, whose Carotis Artery we had prepar’d, out of which we immitted into the young man’s Vein, about three times as much of its Arterial blood as he had emitted into the Dish, and then having stopt the orifice of the Vein with a little bolster, as is usual in other phlebotomies, we caus’d him to lie down on his Bed, expecting the event; and as I askt him now and then how he found himself, he told me that during the operation he had felt a very great heat along his Arm, and since perceiv’d himself much eased of a pain in his side, which he had gotten the evening before by falling down a pair of staires of ten steps; about ten of the clock he was minded to rise, and being I observed him cheerful enough, I did not oppose it; and for the rest of the day, he spent it with much more liveliness than ordinary; eat his Meals very well, and shewed a clear and smiling countenance.... He grows fat visibly, and in brief, is a subject of amazement to all those that know him, and dwell with him.”
This boy had been transfused for therapeutic purposes; the second transfusion performed by Denys was done upon an older man “having no considerable indisposition,” and was purely experimental. About twenty ounces of lamb’s blood are stated to have been transfused, but the procedure was without any ill effect, and it may be doubted whether the man received as much as this.
In the succeeding number of the Philosophical Transactions, October 21, 1667, the remarks of another French experimenter, Gaspar de Gurye, are quoted. These are of considerable interest, as they contain the first warning of the dangers attending the administration of incompatible blood. De Gurye affirms “that an expert Acquaintance of his, transfusing a great quantity of blood into several Doggs, observed alwayes, that the Receiving Doggs pissed Blood.”
Other cases were subsequently recorded by Denys. In one he claims to have cured a patient suffering from “an inveterate Phrenzy.” His account of it is too long to be quoted here in full, but it is of special interest in that it contains the first account of hæmolysis and the attendant symptoms in man which follow the transfusion of incompatible blood. The blood of a calf was used in this instance and on two occasions; at the first transfusion only a small amount was given, but at the second,
“the Patient must have received more than one whole pound. As this second Transfusion was larger, so were the effects of it quicker and more considerable. As soon as the blood began to enter into his veins, he felt the like heat along his Arm and under his Arm-pits which he had felt before. His pulse rose presently, and soon after we observed a plentiful sweat all over his face. His pulse varied extremely at this instant, and he complained of great pain in his Kidneys, and that he was not well in his stomack, and that he was ready to choak unless they gave him his liberty.
“Presently the Pipe was taken out that conveyed the blood into his veins, and whilst we were closing the wound, he vomited store of Bacon and Fat he had eaten half an hour before. He found himself urged to Urine, and asked to go to stooll. He was soon made to lie down, and after two good hours strainings to void divers liquors, which disturbed his stomack, he fell asleep about 10 a Clock, and slept all that night without awakening till next morning, was Thursday, about 8 a Clock. When he awakened, he shewed a surprising calmness, and a great presence of mind, in expressing all the pains and a general lassitude he felt in all his limbs. He made a great glass full of Urine, of a colour as black, as if it had been mixed with the soot of Chimneys.”
The hæmoglobinuria, which was not at that time attributed to its true cause, cleared up in the course of a few days, and the patient appeared to be greatly benefited.
Although the first transfusion performed upon a human being was done in France, similar experiments were shortly afterwards carried out in England. The passage already quoted concerning the “sundry instances” mentioned in Sprat’s History of the Royal Society is amplified by the diarist, Samuel Pepys, who witnessed the experiments on at least one occasion. His first reference to the subject is under the date November 14, 1666:
“Here [at the Pope’s Head] Dr. Croone told me, that, at the meeting at Gresham College to-night, ... there was a pretty experiment of the blood of one dogg let out, till he died, into the body of another on one side, while all his own run out on the other side. The first died upon the place, and the other very well, and likely to do well. This did give occasion to many pretty wishes, as of the blood of a Quaker to be let into an Archbishop, and such like; but, as Dr. Croone says, may, if it takes, be of mighty use to man’s health, for the amending of bad blood by borrowing from a better body.” (Diary, ed. Wheatley, vi. p. 60.)
Two days later he reports: