"Pretty Experiment"

"At the meeting at Gresham College tonight . . . there was a pretty experiment of the blood of one dog let out . . . into the body of another on one side, while all his own run out on the other side. The first died upon the place, and the other very well, and likely to do well." Thus wrote Samuel Pepys in 1666.

Last fortnight a similar and even prettier experiment was described by Dr. William Thalheimer of Manhattan, and Drs. Donald Young Solandt and Charles Herbert Best of Toronto, in The Lancet, British medical journal. They reported removing the kidneys from a dog, thus preventing him from excreting the nitrogenous poisons carried in his blood stream. Several days later, when his blood was filled with urea, they anesthetized him, connected an artery and vein to a vein and artery of a healthy, anesthetized dog. The small connecting pipes were attached to a specially designed pump which exchanged more than six quarts of blood an hour in each direction. A solution of heparin (a phosphorus compound found in the liver) was introduced into the blood to prevent coagulation. No change was made in the blood volume of either animal, but the two blood streams were thoroughly mixed until the urea of the nephrectomized (kidney-less) dog was distributed fairly evenly throughout the blood of both animals. The normal dog rapidly excreted the urea of the nephrectomized dog. Ten experiments were reported. In practically all cases the kidney-lender made a rapid recovery. In many cases the nephrectomized dog was in good condition at the conclusion of the experiment.

Said the physicians: "There are perhaps some circumstances which might justify the use of exchange transfusions in the human species. However, application to human subjects should be considered only after a thorough study of the technique and full appreciation of the many attendant dangers."

Not yet, however, were the doctors willing even to suggest any use (such as temporary relief of uremia) to which the method might eventually be put. But Mr. Pepys, willing like most laymen to rush in where scientists fear to tread, ventured 272 years ago to draw a conclusion from the experiment he described. Said he: "This did give occasion to many pretty wishes, as of the blood of a Quaker to be let into an Archbishop, and such like; but . . . may, if it takes, be of mighty use to man's health, for the amending of bad blood by borrowing from a better body."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.