When the operation was completed, the vein was
tied up in the same manner as on blood-letting. Sometimes a quantity of
blood was drawn from the patient, previously to the experiment taking
place. As few persons, however, were to be found, that would agree to
part with their blood to others, recourse was generally had to animals,
and most frequently to the calf, the lamb, and the stag. These being
laid upon a table, and tied so as to be unable to move, the operation
was performed in the manner before described. In some instances, the
good effects of these experiments were evident and promising, while they
excited the greatest hopes of the future improvement and progress of
this new art. But the unceasing abuses practised by bold and inexpert
adventurers, together with the great number of cases, which proved
unsuccessful, induced the different governments of Europe to put an
entire stop to the practice, by the strictest prohibitions. And, indeed,
while the constitutions and mode of living among men differ so
materially as they now do, this is, and ever must remain, an extremely
hazardous and equivocal, if not a desperate remedy.
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