Overview

William Harvey's (1578-1657) discovery of the circulation of the blood, reported in De motu cordis (1628), resulted in attempts to inject various therapeutic agents, including blood itself, into the veins of animals and humans. The first significant experiments on blood transfusion were performed by Richard Lower (1631-1691) in England in 1666 and by Jean-Baptiste Denis (1640-1704) in Paris in 1667. Lower began with a series of experiments on animals in preparation for transfusion of blood into humans, but Denis was the first to perform the experiment on human beings. Interest in blood transfusion was high from 1660 until about 1680, when various countries began to outlaw this dangerous, experimental practice. After the deaths of several patients, this highly experimental form of therapy was abandoned for about 150 years.

Background

Long before 1628 when he assembled his evidence and published De motu cordis (Anatomical Exercises Concerning the...