Charles Waller and Edward Doubleday-Colleagues of James Blundell and early supporters of blood transfusion.

The obstetrician James Blundell performed the first human-to-human blood transfusion in England during the early part of the 19th century arguing that it could be used as a treatment for post-partum haemorrhage. During this period, Blundell personally acknowledged two of his medical colleagues Charles Waller and Edward Doubleday as being strong supporters of the use of blood transfusion. This paper outlines the roles that these two men played in the early history of blood transfusion.

Berkeley Moynihan - early transfusionist and blood transfusion recipient.

Lord Sir Berkeley Moynihan (1865-1936) was a surgeon at the General Infirmary in Leeds (Yorkshire) from 1893, rising during his career to be one of the foremost surgeons in the UK whose reputation reached its pinnacle at the outbreak of the First World War (WW1). He was the only surgeon after Lister to be made a Baronet. In a letter to The Lancet in 1918, he claimed to have used blood transfusion on some of his patients during the 10-year period prior to that date.

The history of blood transfusion prior to the 20th century--part 2.

Although there are a number of descriptions of 'blood infusion' in antiquity, it was the publication of the discovery of the circulation of blood in 1628 by William Harvey and the work of Christopher Wren and Robert Boyle in 1663 on the infusion of different materials into dogs that paved the way to the possible practical attempts at actual blood transfusion. Although these early experiments, principally by Richard Lower in England and Jean Denis in France provided valuable information regarding inter-species incompatibility and the problems of blood coagulation, it was not until the work of James Blundell in the early part of the 19th century that blood transfusion was used as a means of blood replacement. However, blood transfusion was not to become an accepted therapeutic possibility until the discovery of practical anticoagulation and the ABO blood groups at the start of the 20th century.

The history of blood transfusion prior to the 20th century--part 1.

Blood transfusion, that is the transference of blood from the circulation of one individual to that of another for practical therapeutic purposes, is of relatively recent origin. Although it only became a routine practical possibility during and shortly after the Second World War, the concept of the infusion of blood has a much longer history. Practical transfusion has to some degree paralleled and in many instances been the consequence of developments in other sciences.