ROBERT BOYLE AND
THE HUMANE BLOOD
By EARLE I:IACKETT. E C E N T L Y I made a search, or perhaps more correctly a casual inquiry, in an effort to find out whether Irishmen, or the Irish School of Medicine, had made any outstanding contribution to tho evolution of the practice of hmmatology or of blood transfusion. E x c e p t for one figure the stage is p r e t t y bare, and even that one spent but little of his time in Ireland. As a nation we have a long, and surely unjust, reputation for being great ones at making blood flow in anger; but if it is so we seem on the whole not to be able to regain our tempers quickly enough to take advantage of the wealth of material for investigation thus provided. Robert Boyle was the seventh son and the fourteenth child of Richard, the "great " E a r l of Cork. H e was born in January, 1627, at Lismore Castle in W a t e r f o r d , so that at any rate by the test of birth he was Irish. The Encyclopedia Britannica refers to " Boyle, Robert, English n a t u r a l philosopher " - - b u t what can you expect from a work which, also u n d e r the B's, lists " B u r k e , Edmund, British s t a t e s m a n " and " B u r k e , William, Irish criminal ", so that, though all were born in Ireland, we get full credit for the Scottish bodysnatching enterprise by which William made his living, only a modest share in E d m u n d ' s statecraft, and no deserts at all for Robert's natural philosophy. The Earl, his father, was a h a r d man who believed in speaking roughly to his little boy and beating him when he sneezed. According to his son he " h a d a perfect aversion " f o r those who " b r e e d their children so nice and tenderly, that a hot sun, or a good shower of rain, as much endangers them, as if they were made of butter, or of sugar." Robert was sent " away f r o m home . . . to the care of a country nurse, who by early inuring him, b y slow degrees, to a coarse but cleanly diet, and to the usual passions of the air, gave him so vigorous a complexion that . . . hardships were made easy to him . . . . " This is confirmed by J o h n Aubrey, the eccentric, who m a y have had it from Robert himself or f r o m one of the f a m i l y that " . . . . H e was nursed by an Irish Nurse, a f t e r the Irish manner, where they p u t t the child into a pendulous Satchell (instead of a Cradle) with a slitt for the Child's head to peepe out. ' '
I t m a y have been his obstinate loyalty to the nurse, but no one but Boyle himself has ever described his complexion as " vigorous." His biographer, Dr. Birch, says " M r . Boyle, was tall of stature, but slender,
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and his countenance pale and emaciated. His constitution was so tender and delicate that he had divers sorts of cloaks to put on when he went abroad, according to the temperature of the air, and in this he governed himself by his thermometer. He escaped, indeed, the smallpox, but for almost forty years he laboured under such a feebleness of body and lowness of strength and spirits that it was astonishing how he could read, meditate, t r y experiments, and write as he did." It is known also that he suffered from the stone and that he kept to a strict diet. The fact remains that the small Robert, far from being a pampered young aristocrat above in the castle, was fostered out on a native breast, hung in a native " Satchell ", and received his early impressions of our native life properly censored by " a slitt ". It is hard to believe that this did not have an effect on his constitution. It may have nearly killed a normal lad and weakened him for life, or it may have toughened him up and ensured the survival of a physical weakling. Let us hope it was the latter. Remember, " He escaped, indeed, the smallpox " Indeed. At the age of eight he left Lismore for Eton, and thereafter he did not see Ireland for seventeen years. By then he had become intensely interested in experimental natural philosophy, particularly chemistry. When he came back to E r i n on a visit in 1652 it was no place for chemists; he described it in a letter to his friend--Mr. Clodius--as " a barbarous country, where chemical spirits are so misunderstood, and ehemieal instruments so unproeurable, that it is hard to have any Hermetic thoughts in i t . " Chemistry being impossible, he turned his hand to something else. He goes on " . . . . I am exercising myself in making anatomical dissections of living animals: wherein . . . I have satisfied myself of the circulation of the blood . . . . " Like everything else, he submitted Harvey's discovery to the test of experimental investigation, and it is interesting to know that he did it here in Ireland. I have tried, without success, to discover where he carried out his dissections. These were not necessarily vivisections, the expression " l i v i n g animals " in his letter being used in opposition to " inanimate bodies ", and were done with the assistance of Dr. (later Sir William) Petty, the polymath Physician-General to the army at that time, who afterwards conducted the " D o w n Survey " of Ireland. F o r the schoolboy, Robert Boyle's fame lies in Boyle's Law, but he is more than a mere eponym. In his patient unbiassed objective methods of research nothing was too trivial to be noted or experimented upon, and although he was surrounded by many spirits (such as Wren and Newton) who possessed f a r greater creative genius than he, it was often Boyle who got results by sticking to strict scientific method. He was modest, too, and foresaw that those who came after him would " arrive at such a t t a i n m e n t s . . , that the D i s c o v e r i e s . . . upon which the present Age most values itself, will appear so e a s y . . , to them, that they w i l l . . . wonder that things so obvious, should lye so long conceal'd to us . . . w h o m they will perhaps look upon with some kind of disdainful Pity, unless they h a v e . . , the equity to c o n s i d e r . . , the Difficulties this Age surmounted in breaking the Ice . . . and thereby contributing to those Advantages that have enabled them so much to surpass us." This passage is taken from Boyle's M e m o i r s f o r the N a t u r a l H i s t o r y o f
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B l o o d published in 1684, which contains a description of many experiments made upon blood, and suggestions for a much wider investigation. Boyle looked on blood as a chemical substance and he was out to discover its properties. He points out that the anatomists " mind the solid parts of the Body, and overlook Enquiries into the Fluids, and especially the Blood." This, he says, " were ltttle less improper in a Physician, than it would be in a Vintner to be very solicitous about the Structure of his Cask, and neglect the consideration of the Wine contain'd in it." It is difficult to make extracts from Boyle's works without exasperating a modern reader because his style is often prolix and occasionally downright long-winded. It is his habit, too, to sprinkle his experimental results with pompous moralising upon human affairs. But among other things noted in his book on " The Humane Blood ", is the fact that contact with the air will turn blood from dark red to scarlet, as also will " Sal-Armoniac " turn it to a slightly different though " pleasant r e d " colour; that heating will convert serum into " a kind of Gelly "; that serum (like urine) can be used as " invisible ink " ; and that the specific gravity of blood (determined by weighing) is one and one twentyfifth (1"04). This last is remarkably accurate. The specific gravity of normal blood is just over 1"05, and many of Boyle's specimens came from " Persons that parted with it out of custom"---in fact, they were regularly bled by their physicians and were probably anaemic as a result, which would lower the specific gravity of their blood. Most of his efforts were devoted to the preparation of " S p i r i t of Blood" by distillation, a substance which he felt should have great curative powers, and he records how it cured a tailor of " t o r m e n t i n g fits of the Head-ach." He laments because of the blood " o f sound persons being in the place I resided in, very difficult to be procur'd in quantity." Such is still the case, no matter where the residence. Boyle was a seriously minded man. His writings and reputation are almost humourless. The following passages, which would bring the house down in the music-hall or the cinema, are written with the greatest gravity, unless the Hon. Robert had his tongue in his cheek and was giving the Fellows of the Royal Society a laugh at his expense, but his ~ ~ ~ doings generally belie such a possibility : _~ " " I remember I once kept Humane Blood for a year together, in a Glass very carefully, and if I mistake not, Hermetically clos'd . . . . But when the Blood ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ ~ came to be expos'd to the contact of the ( ~ Air, the stink was so great and offensive especially to some Ladies that liv'd in the house, that we were fain to have it hastily thrown away. Another time, having eaus'd some Sheeps Blood to be digested in a pretty large Vial Hermetically sealed, after it had continued a good while in the Digestive Furnace, upon a sudden, th5 no Body touched it, it broke with a sur-
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BOYLE
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prizing noise, and blew off the long neck of the Vial. Two or three almost like mischances I had with attempts made on Humane Blood. . . . " and a g a i n " F o r th5 to me the bad smells of all these Liquors seem to be much alike, yet divers Ladies, and those of very differing Ages, affirm they find a manifest difference between the smells, and do abhor the odour of Spirit of Blood as a stink, though they will with pleasure hold their noses a great while over . . . Salarmoniac (which is in effect a Sp. of Mans Urine) and affirm themselves to be much refresh'd by i t . " Having heard the foregoing solemnly read with a slight stutter by Mr. Boyle, surely some F.R.S. dropped in to a tavern on his way home and tried his hand at a skit or two. After all, the seventeenth century was a great time for rhyming. Is it possible that the Virtuoso might have turned out a little thing something like this? The Chymist to his J~dia.
When Julia goes in flow'rd grot The Rose is ta'en aback-My Julia sniffs from jewell'd Pot Her Sal-armoniae. The Spirit 'stilled within that Pot Was lately pass'd by me. Ah Julia, what poor wight would not Pass anything for Thee. Love pierc'd mine Heart; I wrench'd the Blood; With passion 't was congeal'd. I clos'd it in a glassy Hood Hermetically seal'd. To Julia and her Sisters pure (All very differing Ages) I gave this Vial of Love's Liqueur And waited for Love's Wages. But Blood with passion overdone Bore properties peculiar-It burst and ravish'd everyone; Her sisters and my Julia. And now with Heart beyond repair And shame-disturbed slumbers For Julia's sake I charge the air With Lab'ratory Numbers. Twenty years before the publication of his work on " The Humane Blood " t h e Royal Society, and Boyle in particular, had been much taken with the possibility of intravenous injeetion and blood transfusion. There are a number of contemporary references to it in the 1660's. Boyle records that some years previously he had met Dr. I. Wilkins and Mr. Christopher Wren when " t h e latter of those Firtuos~ told us, That he could easily contrive a way to. convey any liquid Poison immediately into the Mass of the Blood." Boyle provided a dog, and Mr. Wren
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demonstrated his method successfully. Afterwards the dog grew fat and did well, and Boyle solemnly writes that " this experiment . . . having made him famous, he was soon after stoln away from me." Such is fame. Shortly after this, having performed several intravenous injections (using quills) upon animals, Boyle suggested that " tryal might be made upon some humane Bodies, especially those of Malefactors." Then " some Moneths after, a foreign Ambassador, a curious Person, . . . inform'd me, That he had caus'd tryal to be made with infusion of Crocus Metallorum, upon an inferior Domestick of his that deserv'd to have been hang'd; but that the fellow, as soon as ever the Injection began to be made did (either really or craftily) fall into a Swoon; whereby, being unwilling to prosecute so hazardous an Experiment, they desisted, without seeing any other Effect of it, save that it was told the Ambassador, that it wrought once downward with him, which yet might, perhaps, be occasioned for fear or anguish . . . . " Which leaves us with two reflections: Domesticks, even inferior ones, get away with a great deal nowadays; and what is meant by "wrought once downward " ? Incontinence? It was probably round about this time that Samuel (' Hudibras ') Butler, wrote a parody---" A n Occasional Reflection on Dr. Charlton's feeling a Dog's Pulse at Gresham-College. B y R. B., E s q . " " R . B . " stood for our hero, and the piece is a burlesque of Boyle's prose style. I t points out how careful one must be to use a dog rather than a eat. " F o r a Cat, you know, is said to have nine Lives, that is eight in Reversion and one in Possession; and it is a matter of no mean difficulty exactly to trace and observe, how many of these the lethal Force of this destructive Medicament will reach . . . . " and " i t is wonderful to behold this exquisite and solert Dr. whose Province lies in the Cabinet of fair Ladies, and whose daily Employments are to sollicit the tender Arteries of their Ivory Wrists; that he, I say, should nevertheless condescend to animadvert the languishing Diastole of an expiring Mungrel." That last bit is good. A visit to Boyle's laboratory was quite the thing of a morning for the fashionable dilettanti. I t was well set up and he spared no expense to get the materials he wanted. John Aubrey says " h e haz . . . a noble Laboratory, and severall servants (Prentices to him) to looke to i t . " (I wonder if this is the earliest reference to laboratory technicians?) With the Mach~na Boyleana he persuaded Mother Nature to produce that which she abhorred so much, and John Evelyn mentions that he saw " several experiments in Mr. Boyle's vacuum. A man thrusting in his arm, upon exhaustion of the air, ~ad his flesh immediately swelled so as the blood was near bursting the veins: he drawing it out, we found it all speckled." M'm, say you, petechi~e. Speckles, say I, is a mu~h better word for them. In November, 1666, an experiment was performed before the Royal Society whereby the blood of one dog was transfused into another, and almost exactly a year later some sheep's blood was successfully transfused into a man, one Arthur Coga, who received twenty shillings for his trouble. The success of these experiments gave rise to much speculation as to whether personal traits or characteristics could be transferred
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from the donor ( " the emittent " as Boyle calls him) to the recipient. Pepys mentions that it gave " o c c a s i o n to many pretty wishes, as of the blood of a Quaker to be let into an Archbishop, and such like," but some of those in the know seem to have grasped that transfusion could be valuable in restoring patients who lacked blood through sickness or old age. Henry Oldenburg, writing to his friend Boyle on September 12, 1667, and discussing possible cures by transfusion, refers humorously to the disappointed heirs who " w o u l d not be much obliged for the performance of such cures, no more than cardinals will for the confirmation of the health of popes this way." While these experiments were going on, Boyle, in what seems to have been his usual r61e, clarified the matter in hand, stripped it of many of its obscurities, and suggested under sixteen heads how further researches might be made. He pointed out that transfusion " s e e m s not like . . . grafting, where the cyon turns the sap of the stock, grafted upon, into its nature ", and that " The most probable use of this experiment may be conjectured to be, that one animal may live with the blood of another and consequently those animals that want blood, or have corrupt blood, may be supplied from others with a sufficient quantity, and of such as is good, provided the transfusion be often repeated, by reason of the quick expence that is made of the blood." These two suppositions, that transfused blood retains its identity in the recipient and that it is eliminated after a while, must have been intuitive; yet according to our modern observations they are absolutely correct. After Boyle's time intravenous medication and blood transfusion fell into disuse for about 150 years, largely because incomplete knowledge led to dangerous accidents. He had taken a large part in developing a method which finds wide use today. In 1689 he more or less retired to " recruit his spirits, to range his papers, and to take some care of his affairs in Ireland, which are very much disordered, and have their face often changed by the public calamities there." At about this time he had the Bible printed in Irish at his own expense. In 1691 he died, and was later described by Addison in the S p e c t a t o r as " an Honour to his Country, and a more diligent as well as successful Enquirer into the Works of Nature, than any other our Nation has ever produced." Well, by " nation " Addison did not mean Ireland, but in the nature of things I think we can claim that Robert Boyle was as much influenced by Irish bacon in early life as he was in later years by the works of Verulam. References. Addison. R. Spectator. No. 531. Sat., Nov. 8th, 1712. Aubrey, J. Brief Lives (ed. Dick, O.L.). Birch, T. Life of Robert Boyle. Boyle, 1%. An Account of Philaretus. Boyle, 1%. Works (ed. Birch, T.). Boyle, R. Some Considerations Touching the Usefulneese of Bxperlmental Naturall Phglosophy 1663. Boyle, R. (1666). Phil. Trans. 20. 353. Boyle, R. Memoirs /or the Natural History o! Humar~e Blood. 1684. Butler, S (Poet). Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose (ed. R. Thyer) (1759). Clerke, A. M.. Boyle, Fob r~. Dict. Nat. Biog. Evelyn, J. D/ary. May 7th, 1661. Pepys, S. D/a~¢. Nov. 14th, 16th, 1666 ; Nov. 21st, 30th, 1667.
