Blood Transfusions - A Long History of Controversy

 "If red blood cells were a new drug today, it would be very difficult to get it licensed." - Dr. Jeffrey Mc Cullough.

IN THE winter of 1667, a violent madman named Antoine Mauroy was brough to Jean-Baptiste Denis, eminent physician to King Louis XIV of France.  Denis had the ideal "cure" for Mauroy's mania-a transfusion of calf's blood, which he thought would have a calming effect on his patient.  But things did not go well for Mauroy.  Granted, after a second transfusion, his condition improved. But soon madness again seized the Frenchman, and before long he was dead. 

Even though it was later determined that Mauroy died from arsenic poisoning, Denis' experiments with animal blood provoked a heated controversy in France.  Finally, in 1670 the procedure was banned.  In time, the English Parliament and even the pope followed suit.  Blood transfusions fell into obscurity for the next 150 years. 

Next time: Blood Transfusions -A Long History of Controversy - Early Hazards

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