Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1869 — Transfusion of Blood. [ARTICLE]

Transfusion of Blood.

This operation, which consists in the actual transfer of the blood of one living body into the veins of another, been recenW*lertjfiflp'fte the hospital, inder the fWfowingcirtuiMfctancies: A youn Fb. d ’H In’the upper’part of the city was wounded Qp.tho uinpr BUtfacc ipf the ijJp» Tty Stripping' and' falling on the which he had been carrying in his hand. The Wound contimfefl tffbleed for 10 days, after which time Mtfcnt was sent to the surgical wards of the hospital, which were, at the time, khe charge es pt,T. Gi Moj ton. _Bgyerai remedies were then Applied, and the artmeh 'supplying the face were tied, hut without success in controlling the flow of blood.. Recourse w»s next had to cutting down to the common carotid or great artery of the neck, and applying a ligature, ao as to obstruct entirely the course pf the blood to it. This was done on the 18th of October last The oozing of blood still continued, but in lessened quantity.. -On the following day, or the 19th, the patient was in such a state of extreme exhaustion from the long-continued hemorrhage that his dcath’seemed to be imminent, and, as a last resource, Dr. Morton resolved to try the effect of transfusion. W c shall not pretend to desoribeihe apparatus used, on the occasion, or lhafetails of the operation. Let it suffice say that two medical students bareditalir arms and gave the Hood required foirvhe occasion. Five.' ounces and a half of their blood were infused into the vein of each arm of th® patient, the marked good effects of which were evinced in five minutes by a rallying of the pulse and otherwise beginnihg reaction. There was no further discharge of blood from the original wound, and in ten days the patient was able to walk in the ward, and rapidly regained strength. Whatever may be the'termination of this case, regarded as one of a wound with complicated symptoms, there can be no question of the entire success of the operation of transfusion, and of its saving life and restoring the patient, for a while at least, to the cxfeieHaidfliiaardinary functions. Transfusion was first practised in the early part of the seventeenth century, although its use in England and on the continent generally dates from the middle of this century. The first operations were on animals, and the .first Instance of one being performed qn nfah, if we except that described by.Libarius, was in Paris,.by Denys And Emmerez, in f 766. r In the. succeeding yedf their example was followed by Lower aqd King, in England. In these itnd' other cases of subsequent date, the bfobd was taken from an animal—a shgep pr.calfj hut grave objections to this eouree prtscWt themselves in the different characters of the globules of the blood of aiiimnls from those 1 Of the huipan.Subject, 4nd in' iatdr time|thp transfusion is always from one to another of Mdftßiuals df otir own Apeeies.' 'The profaasfoniqtiupli iqdebUxl to Dr,' Blundell, an' eminent English ■acCoucher, for his ingenious researches concerning-trans-fusion, and his-improved method for its successful use. He showed in the result of cases of excessive Exhaustion from loss of blood, occurring" in,pis large obstetrical prattled, and when lift seemed' about to ebb. woy, hpiw it could be suddenly and completely rescued by transfusion. The New York Mtdical Record, of Oct 1, contains an account, by Dr. Joseph Buscher, of a successful case of transfusion. The patient was a young’German woman who had lost much blood by typhus fever. The fresh blood was taken from the arm of her husband.— Ledger..