History of Transplants in 10 Objects 3: Lamb.
Nowadays, we tend to think of blood transfusions as quite separate to transplants, or maybe we think of them as a kind of liquid transplant because they replace lost blood. But in the 1660s, transfusions were NOT not meant to replace blood. In fact, your doctor was more apt to take out your blood than he was to put more in. Transfusions first evolved as potential anti-aging treatments – inspired by Ancient Greek and Roman myths of young blood removing infirmity – then treatments for conditions like epilepsy, and most famously madness. And these were not human-human transfusions, but ANIMAL-human transfusions. A transfusion from an animal was meant to transfuse a quality associated with that animal. So, a calf's blood might transfuse its youth, and a lamb's blood might transfuse its calmness or placidity (hence being a supposedly great treatment for insanity!) The Protestant British found all this hilarious and wrote plays making fun of scientists (who were already the butt of many a joke because they thought they spent time and money working out how to do other ridiculous things like measuring air). But the Catholic French were terrified. A surgeon might very well transfuse a calf's youth or a lamb's innocence, but if the surgeons were right, wouldn't it also transfuse the calf's stupidity, or the lamb's wooziness?
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Paul Craddock's website: www.paulcraddock.com
