The first recorded blood transfusions: 1656 to 1668

Abstract

The transfusion of blood was only one of many scientific competitions in which the citizens of France and England engaged in the 1600s. This particular competition laid the foundations for transfusion therapy that were built on 100 years later when more was known about blood. At the time of the studies discussed here, the most important goal seemed to be the establishment of the primacy of the discovery by one or the other nation. In this, most scholars give Lower and the English the first animal-to-animal transfusion and Denys and the French the first animal-to-man transfusion. However, even though this national primacy might not seem so important now, we must realize that the international competition created knowledge that still benefits us today, and those results might not have been produced so swiftly if the competition had not taken place.