The influence of vivisection on human surgery / by Sampson Gamgee.

  • Sampson Gamgee
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of vivisection on human surgery / by Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Blundell’s “ Experiments on the Transfusion of Blood,” published in the ninth volume of the Medico Chirurgical Transactions.* “ A few months ago I was requested to visit a woman who was sinking under uterine hemorrhage. The discharge had stopped before my arrival, but her fate was decided, and notwithstanding every exertion of the medical attendants she died in the course of two hours. Reflecting on this melan¬ choly scene I could not forbear considering that the patient might very propably have been saved by transfusion.” Dr. Blundell put the matter to the test of experiment, bled a dog to extreme fainting, and then injected into it six ounces of blood from another dog. “ So sudden and complete was the resuscitation, that the animal seemed rather to awaken from sleep than arise from apparent death.” Dr. Blundell made similar experiments, and his results having been substantially confirmed by many other enquirers in Europe and in America, transfusion has won its place amongst the resources of human surgery, for saving life in imminent peril. One of the most recent writers on the subject (Dr. Roussel), after fully acknowledging vivisections as the origin and warrant for transfusion of blood in man, relates fifty cases in which it was performed, with twenty-six complete re¬ coveries and fourteen prolongations of life. In each of the patients the circumstances were extremely urgent, and all other means had failed. Amongst the serious injuries to which the human body is liable, none afford a better illustration than do wounds of the intestines; of the advantages which have resulted from scientific experiments upon animals. ' ISIS, p. 56, et seq.
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