MILLIONS of blood transfusions are performed each year, saving countless lives. Yet, this was once a controversial procedure. Shortly after the first experiments were conducted in England and France some 350 years ago, blood transfusion was banned by the French parliament, effectively halting all such trials in Europe. Almost 150 years passed before the practice was revived in 1818 by an English obstetrician, James Blundell, who performed a human-to-human blood transfusion at Guy’s Hospital in London. Even then, transfusion was only occasionally successful. It was only after the discovery of blood groups and anticoagulants in the 20th century that it became a common medical procedure.

The controversy that led to the French ban is central to Holly Tucker’s excellent book. On June 15th 1667 a young French physician, Jean Denis, successfully transfused a few ounces of blood from a lamb into a 15-year-old boy in the first animal-to-human transfusion. The boy lived. Two years earlier, in England another physician, Richard Lower, had already successfully transfused blood between dogs.

 
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