Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Giacomo di San Genesia

  • Blood and hate: The anti-Semitic origin of the fabled first transfusion

    Matthew Turner McChord, Washington, United States   Massacre of Jews woodcut. 1493. From L. Golding, The Jewish Problem, Penguin, 1938. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Introduction It is a story often repeated in medical textbooks: in 1492, Innocent VIII lay dying. His physician attempted the first recorded blood transfusion, transfusing the blood of three children into…