The 1800s were a strange world when it came to medical experiments. Doctors, scientists, and curious neighbors were testing out all sorts of bizarre theories. Here is a collection of a few blood experiments that were going on at the time.
Goat Blood Makes Man Butt Head
In the 1800s, doctors were experimenting with animal blood in humans. From this, strange stories hit the newspapers claiming that people were taking on the characteristics of the animal whose blood they received. The following news article is from 1874, titled “An Astonishing Result,” and claims that a man started acting like a goat after receiving a goat’s blood transfusion.
“A recent medical experiment has excited a considerable amount of interest in our village. My neighbor Simpson was nearly dead with consumption, and Dr. Hopkins at last, in despair concluded to try the effect of a transfusion of blood, of which he had heard so much lately. As no human being was willing to shed his blood for Simpson, the doctor bled Simpson’s goat, and opening a vein in Simpson’s arm he injected about two quarts of the blood into the patient’s system. Simpson immediately began to revive, but, singular to relate, no sooner had his strength returned than he jumped out of bed, and, twitching his head about after the fashion of a goat, he made a savage attempt to butt the doctor. That medical gentleman, after having Simpson’s head plunged against his stomach three or four times, took refuge in the closet, whereupon Simpson banged his head against the panel of the door a couple of times, and would probably have broken it to splinters had not his mother-in-law entered at that moment and diverted his attention. One well directed blow from Simpson’s head floored her, and then, while she screamed for help, Simpson frolicked around over the floor, making assiduous efforts to nibble the green flowers in the ingrain carpet. When they called the hired man in and tied him down on the bed, an effort was made to interview him, but the only answer he could give to such questions as how he felt and when he wanted his medicine was a “ba-a,” precisely like that of the goat; and then he would strain himself in an effort to butt a hole in the headboard. The condition of the patient was so alarming, and Mrs. Simpson was so indignant that Dr. Hopkins determined to undo the evil if possible. So he first bled Simpson freely, and then by heavily bribing Simpson’s Irishman he procured fresh blood from him and injected Simpson a second time. Simpson is now well as ever, excepting that he shocks his old Republican friends by displaying an irresistible tendency to vote the Democratic ticket, and makes his mother-in-law mad by speaking with a strong brogue. But he has given up butting, and has never indulged in it since but once, and that was on Sunday when one of the remaining corpuscles of goat’s blood getting into his brain just as he was going into church he butted the sexton half way up the aisle, and only recovered himself sufficiently to apologize just as the enraged official was about to floor him with a hymn book.” [Source]
Changing Skin Color After Blood Transfusion
My mother, born in the 1940s, remembers people whispering that if a white person received a black person’s blood, the white person would turn black. Of course, that is as ridiculous as someone turning into a goat or a cat, but that racial fear was real at one point. The following article was published in 1874 and was titled “Transfusion of Blood.” Before reading, please be aware that the outrageous beliefs presented in this old article are not my own.
“A reporter of the New Orleans Picayune has evidently accomplished a sensation. Near St. Bernard market, in that city, he discovered what appeared to be a spotted n——, but who, upon investigation, proved to be a Norwegian sailor strongly infused with Cambodian blood. While sick in Singapore, many years ago, a physician, to prevent his dying of paralysis, infused into his veins the blood of a Cambodian boatman. It restored animation to his dying frame, renewed his lease on life, but entailed the fearful alternative of a black instead of a white skin. Since then the man has been steadily growing black, and two of his children born since the medical experiment was made are deeply tainted with the Cambodian blood, presenting all the characteristics of the half-breeds of that race.
“If the Picayune reporter’s diagnosis of the case is correct, it is possible that a transfusion of blood may do for our colored fellow-citizens what miscegenation has failed to accomplish. The blacks ought to be able to turn white as well as whites black. In that case the time may not be distant when all of our Southern statesmen of the colored classes will be radiant blondes.” [Source]
Given Cat’s Blood And Jumps Through Window
Besides goat blood, there is another account of a man who was given a transfusion of cat’s blood. While this story was published in numerous newspapers across the United States back in 1883, I have my sincere doubts that there is any truth to it. Here is the article as it was published in The Semi-Weekly Miner out of Butte, Montana. The article was titled “Curious Effect of Cat’s Blood.”
“A gifted writer on a California paper at present marches proudly in the van; waving aloft that copy of his journal which describes the medical experiment made in his vicinity of infusing the blood of living cats into the veins of a young man who was far gone in consumption. The man regained his bodily health, but his mind became affected. He refused to go to bed, saying he believed he was being transformed into a cat and preferred to sleep on a rug before the fire. At night, when not asleep, he would wander about the house, jumping the garden fence until tired out, when he would climb to the roof and perch on the chimney. He sought the society of other cats and at intervals would try to fight with them, only succeeding however, in scaring them away, when he would retire to the house until rested. He manifested the greatest terror of broom handles and boot jacks, and at last his mania so grew on him that he was confined until examined for commitment to the asylum. During the examination he showed a wonderful propensity for jumping, several times running on all fours and springing over the doctors. Once he jumped through the window, taking the sash with him, and until he was put in a strait jacket could not be kept still. All the time of his antics he kept up an ear-piercing mewing, and at the sight of dogs became frantic. Of course this incident is sworn to by a lot of ‘reliable citizens.’” [Source]
From Decomposed Meat To Blood
A strange story came out of New York in 1868. Titled “A Medical Experiment,” it gives details of a doctor who drank water that had sat with rotten meat in it. Afterwards, he took a sample of his blood to see if the “minute animals” from the rotten meat water were in his blood stream. Here is the article as it was published in the Western Reserve Chronicle:
“Dr. Richardson, of Springfield, N.Y., at the medical convention recently held in Rochester, said that investigating the cause and nature of eruptive diseases he made the following experiment: He took a piece of fresh beef, and put it under pure water, where he left it remain 70 hours. By this time the meat had begun to decompose, and was far from being agreeable either to the taste or smell. The doctor then took a single drop of the water and examined it under the microscope. He discovered in it numerous minute animals, all in a lively state. He estimated that a cubic inch of the water contained over 20,000 of these beings. The doctor at this stage deliberately swallowed four ounces of the water, and soon afterward opened a vein in his arm. In the blood that issued forth he discovered a number of living organisms precisely similar to those in the water he drank. This statement was made before the convention, and if it failed to convince the auditors of squeamishness on the doctor’s part, it must, at all events, have satisfied them of his devotion to science.” [Source]
