History of Blood Transfusion

1616
William Harvey discovered that blood has a flow inside the animal body.

1665
Richard Lower succeeded in saving life of a dog by transfusing another “dog’s” blood in it.

1667
The first recorded blood transfusion into vein or artery took place in France in 1667 and was unsuccessful. A cupful of lamb’s blood was transfused into a man via a silver tube. The man survived two transfusions and then died.

1668
The Pope banned any kind of experiment on blood,

1818
Dr. James Blund was successful in saving a man’s life by direct transfusion from another man.

1874
William Highmore first suggested Autologous transfusion.

1875
Karl Landsteiner was first to notice that just any man’s blood cannot be transfused to another.

1900-01
Karl Landsteiner’s experiment revealed A, B and O group in human blood. This opened the floodgate for the development of science of “Transfusion Medicine”. Rightly, Karl Landsteiner was awarded “Nobel Prize” for his grand discovery.

1914
Dr. Hustin’s use of sodium citrate removed the problems of coagulation of blood.

1914–18
Blood transfusion was used during the first world war, when blood was transported to the battlefront in modified, clean, sterilized milk bottles.