In 1667 a London man received sheep's blood in the first English human transfusion

historyThe Public Domain Review1667 · London

In 1667 a London man received sheep's blood in the first English human transfusion

the gist

In November 1667, the physician Richard Lower and Edmund King carried out the first recorded human blood transfusion in England, at Arundel House in London. They first drew arterial blood from a sheep through a silver pipe and then fed about 9 to 10 ounces of it into a vein in the arm of Arthur Coga, a Cambridge divinity student who was paid a guinea. Lower described Coga as having a mild form of madness and hoped the gentle nature of a lamb would calm him. Coga felt well afterwards and wrote an account in Latin, but a second transfusion did not change his temper. The experiment was reported to the Royal Society.

how it works

The doctors connected an artery of a sheep to a vein in the man's arm with silver pipes and quills. The blood flowed by gravity and the heart's pulse, and the team could feel a pulse through the pipe. They judged the quantity from the sheep's blood lost in a minute.

so what

The experiment was part of the early effort to find out whether blood could be moved between animals and people, a question that later led to the understanding of blood groups. The same year, transfusions were tried in France, and they were soon banned in several countries because of the risks.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗