-
2500 BCE
Egyptians used bleeding to treat patients, heiroglyphics sows patients being bled from the neck and feet. -
350 BCE
Aristotle "discovers" that the heart is the central organ of the body. -
450-400 bce
Empedocles "discovered" that the heart is the organ of sense, and that all matter is comprised of four roots . -
300 BCE
Herophilus of Chalcedon does one of the first public dissections of a cadaver in alexandria. he finds arteries are thicker than veins and they carry blood. -
mid- 1200s
Eminent Cairo describes the circulation of blood. -
1603
Fabricius publishes documents containing the first drawings of vein valves. -
1553
Michael Servetus suggests that blood flows through the lungs instead of the heart. -
1628
William Harvey publishes EXERCITATIO ANATOMICA DE MOTU CORDIS ET SANGUINIS IN ANIMALIBUS (ANATOMICAL TREATISE ON THE MOVEMENT OF THE HEART AND BLOOD IN ANIMALS). he describes how blood is circulated throught the body and its pupmed by the heart. -
1658
Jan Swammerdam is the first person to observe and describe red blood cells -
1661
Marcello Malpighi describes the capillary system, the network of veins and arteries. -
1674
Anton van Leeuwenhoek provides an even more accurate description of rbc's. he describes them as being 25000 times smaller than a grain of sand. -
1665
Richard Lower performs the first blood transfusion between animals. -
1818
British obstetrician and physiologist James Blundell perrform the first blood transfusion between humans. -
1874
William Osler observes that bone marrow cells make up clots in blood vessels. (platelets) -
1901
Karl Landsteiner publishes a document about his doscovery on the different types of blood types. -
1902
Alfred von Decastello and Adriano Sturli identify the fouth blood type, AB. -
1907
Dr. Ludvig Hektoen sugests checking patient blood type before giving a blood transfusion. -
1914
Researchers find that mixxing in sodium citrate with blood will stop the blood from clotting. -
1915
Dr. Richard Lewisohn finds that the optimum solution for sodium citrate in blood is just .2% -
1917
Dr. Oswald Robertson stores type o blood to prepare for wounded soldiers coming back from battle. in doing so he created the first blood bank. -
1930
Dr. Serge Yudin is the first to try using cadaver blood to help a human. he succesfully saved a young man using a 60 year olds dead body. -
1935
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN organizes a transfusion service for hospitals. -
1936
Federico Duran-Jorda begins collecting blood and refridgerating it so that he can transport it to soldiers in need during the spanish civil war -
1939-1940
Drs. Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener discover there is another blood group. they discover the rh blood group -
1940
Edwin Cohn discovers a way of creating a durable substitute for plasma by seperating out its different proteins -
1941
the american red cross agrees to create a nation wide blood donor service for the war and collect 13 million samples over the course of the war -
1948
Dr. Carl W. Walter develops a plastic bag to hold blood safer and less likely to be contaminated. -
1959
Dr. Max Perutz is able to discover the structure of hemoglobin using x rays -
1965
Dr. Judith Pool discovers that plasma that is frozen and thawed slowly has a higher factor for clotting blood. -
late 1960s
Drs. Kenneth M. Brinkhous and Edward Shanbrom create a highly concentrated form of factor VIII. they create a powdered plasma with this that is 100 times better than any other. -
1971
Dr. Baruch Blumberg discovers a material on hepatitis B that creates antibodies. this led to the creation of a test to identify hepatitis B. -
1981
the first case of GRID (Gay-related Immunodeficiency Disease) is reported.(later called aids) -
1982
Dr. Bruce Evatt suspects that patients with GRID may have the disease becasue it is blood borne. -
1983
Researchers isolate the virus that causes aids and label it LAV (lymphadenopathy-associated virus). -
1984
Dr. Robert Gallo finds the actual virus that causes aids called HTLV III (human T-cell lymphotropic virus).