The principles and practice of obstetric medicine and surgery : in reference to the process of parturition / by Franics H. Ramsbotham.
- Francis Henry Ramsbotham
- Date:
- 1865
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The principles and practice of obstetric medicine and surgery : in reference to the process of parturition / by Franics H. Ramsbotham. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
737/778 page 617
![bus, tenuis, macilentus, vix animam trahens. Magister artis habeat tubulos argenteos, inter se eongruentes. Aperiat arteriam robusti et tubulum- itinera t, iiimiiuti jtie : mox et segroti nrte- riam tindat, et tubuluni fn'inineum iutiirnt. Jam duos tubulos sibi mutuo apjilit-ct, et ex sano sanguis artei'ialis, calens, et spirituous saliet in ii'grotum uiu'onie vit;e fontem afferet, omnem- que languorem pellet There is do account of the practice having been resorted to by either of the individuals ju-t mentioned; but numerous experiments were made subsequently, during the 17th century, on this subject. In the four first vols, of the Philosophical Transactions will be found many papers in which these operations are detailed at length. Drs. Lower (of Oxford) and Edmund King were the originators of the practice in this country, and their ex- periments were first undertaken in the year 166(3, as detailed by Mr. Boyle (Philosophical Transactions, vol. i. p. 353.) They were soon followed by Denys, of Paris, who contended for the honour of the invention. A dispute in regard to priority arose, which was carried on between the English and French savans with no little acrimony, and in a spirit far from phil- osophic. In these trials not only was the blood of one genus of animals transfused into the system of others of the same species ; but an interchange was made of the blood of individuals of different species,—even from the graminivorous into the carnivorous,—without injury to the health of the animals. In June, 1667, Denys performed his first experiment on the human subject (vol. ii. p. 517); and on the 23d of November of the same year, Lower and King put it in practice on a man named Arthur Toga. The operation was performed at Arundel House, in the presence of many considerable and intelligent spectators. The emittent animal was a sheep, and the amount transfused about twelve ounces. It does not appear, howevei that the man was labouring under any disorder, since it is stated, that after the operation, as well as in it, he found himself very well. (p. 557.) Experiments were also made with medicinal and other substances, and some even before blood was used; thus Boyle (Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy, Part ii. Essay ii. p. 53) relates that Dr. Christopher Wren, Savillian professor at Oxford, transfused opium and other medicated infusions into the veins of dogs previously to the year 1665, as noticed in the Philo- sophical Transactions, vol. i. p. 128. In 1667 (vol. ii. p. 400), Francassati, professor of anatomy in Pisa, is reported to have injected nitric and sulphuric acids, as well as other corrosive mat- ters, into the jugular veins of dogs; and (p. 564) Fabricius introduced purgative medicines into the median vein of a man and two women in the hospital at Dantzic: the man was affected with secondary syphilis, the women with epilepsy ; one of the women died ; the oilier two patients appeared to be benefited. The enthusiasm with which these experiments were received, as well by the English as the continental physicians, and the extravagant hopes entertained of the value of the practice, exceeded all bounds. It was confidently asserted that decrepitude, age, and disease—nay, even death itself—would flee before this all-powerful and all-resuscitating process. Short- lived, however, were these high-wrought expectations ; and the death-blow to this pernicious practice, in France at least, was given by an unfortunate case that occurred under the hands of Denys. The patient was an insane man, who had twice been subjected to the experiment, without injury ; and, as was said, with advantage. On the third occasion, however, he died while the operation was being performed. Much excitement ensued throughout the whole of Paris; Denys was arraigned for causing his death ; and this mode of treating diseases was de- nounced by the authorities under severe penalties. This occurred in November, 1669 (vol. iv. p. 1075); from that time the system gradually fell into disuse: and we hear little of trans- fusion of blood until its late revival. Dr. Harwood, indeed (afterwards Professor of Anatomy in the University of Cambridge), in the year 1785. made it the subject of his thesis for the degree of M. B. ; and, repudiating the extravagant notions of it- tir.-t <upportcrs. that it would remove or assuage all diseases, restore vigour, and prolong life to an almost indefinite period, limited his advocacy of the measure to supplying fresh blood to the system of an animal ex- hausted by hemorrhage. He made a number of experiments upon brutes, and suggested the possibility of its being applied to man under similar cases. His proposals, however, seem bounded by the intention of transfusing the blood of other animals into the human system, and no mention is made of employing human blood. Some physiologists contend that the operation of transfusing medicated fluids, and blood itself, into the system of man, is of very remote origin ; and they ground their suppositions on some passages in the ancient poets. Thus, Ovid represents Medea as renewing the youth of yEson by injecting the juice of herbs into his veins:— Quod fimul ac Tidit. stricto Medea recludit t'auitiu l«i-il.i, lJ]:ruiii l'Minu'ie eolorvm. ildam. lib. vii.—v. 285. This is no warrant for such a belief; and the probability is, that the fancy originated, nt in any practice then pursued, but merely in an adventurous flight of poetry. It has bee even supposed that in these early times blood was actually transmitted from one person t another; and a second passage in the same fascinating author, where he describes Medea fiend-like deception practised upon the unsuspecting daughters of I'elias, has been quoted i proof:—](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21007123_0737.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
