Highlights to Transfusion Medicine History - 1628 to 1884

• 1628
  English physician William Harvey discovers the circulation of blood. Shortly afterward, the earliest known blood transfusion is attempted.
  
  
• 1665
  The first recorded successful blood transfusions occur in England. Physician Richard Lower keeps dogs alive by transfusing blood from other dogs.
  
  
• 1667
  Jean-Baptiste Denis in France and Richard Lower in England separately report successful transfusions from lambs to humans. Within ten years, transfusing the blood of animals to humans becomes prohibited by law, delaying transfusion advances for about 150 years.
  
  
• 1795
  In Philadelphia an American physician, Phillip Syng Physick, claims to perform the first human blood transfusion, although he does not publish the information.
  
  
• 1818
  James Blundell, a British obstetrician, performs the first successful transfusion of human blood to a patient for the treatment of postpartum hemorrhage. Using the patient's husband as a donor, he extracts approximately four ounces of blood from the husband's arm and, using a syringe, successfully transfuses the wife. Between 1825 and 1830, he performs 10 transfusions, five of which prove beneficial to his patients, and publishes these results. He also devises various instruments for performing transfusions and proposed rational indications.
  
  
• 1840
  At St. George's School in London, Samuel Armstrong Lane, aided by consultant Dr. Blundell, performs the first successful whole blood transfusion to treat hemophilia.
  
  
• 1867
  English surgeon Joseph Lister uses antiseptics to control infection during transfusions.
  
  
• 1873-1880
  US physicians transfusion milk (from cows, goats and humans).
  
  
• 1884
  Saline infusion replaces milk as a "blood substitute" due to the increased frequency of adverse reactions to milk.

1900 to present >>