The first human blood transfusion: priority disputes (Henry Oldenburg).

IT IS notoriously difficult to deal clearly and accurately with the history of controversy over priority, and the dispute over priority in blood transfusion recently explored by Dr. A. D. Farr in this journal is no exception.' The story has often been told from various points of view:2 and we ourselves printed many documents connected with the controversy in our edition of The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg.3 The aspect with which Dr. Farr is specifically concerned is the history of human blood transfusion , and he has found it difficult to understand why many of the English felt touchy about this, since the French physician Jean Denis (d. 1704) was clearly the first to practise it.4 In particular he has been puzzled by the reaction of Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, to the publication of an English translation of Denis' printed letter (addressed to Hebert de Montmor and dated 25 June 1667 (N.S.)) in what purported to be no. 27 of the Philosophical Transactions. To clarify this matter, and to set the record right in a number of points, it is necessary to consider first, the career of Henry Oldenburg; second, the history and status of the Philosophical Transactions; and finally the prehistory of human blood transfusion and the feelings of nationalism aroused by it. exceptionally full, with references to both manuscript material and secondary sources. Pace Dr. Farr, much more information about Oldenburg's private life is available than is indicated there; further, Rix was far from historically accurate in his understanding of the workings of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century, nor was he Press of Virginia, 1965, ch. II, pp. 55-99. In fact Keynes in the first, historical chapter of the book he edited printed facsimiles of pages from Phil. Trans. no. 20 (with the earliest published English work, 1666) and false no. 27, which he says Oldenburg "suppressed". Far more evidence is given by Keynes for English work than Dr. Farr notes.