I’m thinking that every Wednesday, I’ll let you in on some of the cool history that I uncovered while writing the book. Sound good?
Blood Work is a nonfiction murder mystery set in the Scientific Revolution. It centers around the very first blood transfusions, which took place in the late 1660s, a full 150 years before the discovery of anesthesia and antisepsis and nearly 250 years before the discovery of blood types. To make things even more interesting: these first transfusions used animals as donors.
The question I’ve been getting a lot is how I stumbled on the topic. Actually, like any self-respecting college professor, I came across the very odd story of these first blood transfusions–and the related murder trial–while I was preparing a class lecture on William Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation in 1628.
How did early surgeons control bleeding? Many of you can guess the answer. For as horrific as it sounds, cautery with hot metal instruments and boiling oil were the methods of choice in the 16th and 17th centuries.
