Forgotten transfusion history: John Leacock of Barbados
Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: A sugar planter's son from Barbados who graduated at Edinburgh was one of the first people to experiment with transfusing blood, in the early 19th century, nearly 100 years before the discovery of blood groups made transfusion routinely practicable
James Blundell of London is credited with introducing blood transfusion into the practice of medicine. It was his extensive research in animals and his well disseminated writings that established transfusion as a treatment in the first quarter of the 19th century.1 Blundell acknowledged two colleagues as the inspiration for his work, both from the island of Barbados: Leacock and Goodridge, of whom the more important was John Henry Leacock.
The concept of transfusion therapy had been set aside for 150 years after the failures of transfusion of animal blood into humans by Denys in Paris and Lower in London in the 17th century. Sporadic, haphazard trials with animal blood, including one by Blundell's uncle, a Dr Haighton,1 were known, but it remained for Leacock to do the first set of planned experiments in 1816 that established the need for species compatibility. Blundell reopened the subject a year later, and after that trials of human blood transfusion were made throughout the world.2 Many were successful, despite the fact that it was not until almost 100 years later that discovery of the blood groups made it possible to predict compatibility of donor and recipient.
#### Summary points
Early attempts to transfuse humans with animal blood were made in the 17th century and sporadically thereafter up to the 19th century
In 1816 John Henry Leacock, from Barbados, reported systematic experiments in Edinburgh on dogs and cats that established that donor and recipient must be of the same species, and recommended inter-human transfusion; he then returned to Barbados and published nothing more
James Blundell, who …
Source: BMJ
Authors: P J Schmidt, A G Leacock
Institution: OneBlood
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2075799361