Science and Inquiry discussion

For September 2015 we will be reading Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews at any time.

Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution
How can I read the book

Rose wrote: "Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution
How can I read the book"

You need to buy the book or get it at a library.
It's not available to read on this site (if this is what you meant).

I've already started it. It's great so far.

Does anyone know if this is available as an ebook? Amazon and kobo don't seem to have it....

It is available for kindle on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Work-Medi...

Unfortunately that's the US site. Don't know if you're able to order from that.

Thanks Betsy - it seems that it is not available in that format here (Australia) - had a feeling this might be the case.

Has anyone else started it yet? I'm about 100 pages in

In on chapter 7 and finding it quite fascinating. I'm particularly interested in the competition between France and England in blood transfusions. Also I was not aware of the role of dogs in all this. It's quite uncomfortable to read about, thigh clearly the knowledge gained from those experiments was important. Anyone else have any impressions?

I can't remember what chapter I'm at, but it bothers me reading about the dogs as well. Its quite fascinating reading about society *thought* was happening in the body and how wrong they turned out to be.

I am curious though on how much knowledge we have attained-and not just about blood- from "unethical" experiments?

This book has made me really want to learn more about the history of science.

The standards of ethics in animal experiments have greatly improved, and in general animal experimentation is on the decline, because so much of what used to be studied in animals can now be done with computer modeling and the like. A lot of people don't know this but bone marrow donation/transplantation was actually perfected in pet dogs who themselves had developed cancer naturally. Some of those dogs were cured with techniques that are now widely used in people with cancer.

In any case, the level of detail in this book is stunning. I'm very impressed with the author's ability to dig up all this scientific history and present it in such a compelling way.

I'm up to chapter two, but the Prologue was fascinating! Poor George Washington.

I'm in the chapter blood of the beast and a Question arose: why we're all of Denis' experiments successful when Perrault's continuously failed?

I'm in the chapter blood of the beast and a Question arose: why we're all of Denis' experiments successful when Perrault's continuously failed?

Oops sorry didn't mean for it to send that many times

Courtney wrote: "Oops sorry didn't mean for it to send that many times"

You can delete your own comments (no one else who is not a moderater can in these kind of threads, normally). Below your comment in the box you should see a 'delete' option next to 'reply' and 'edit' and a greyed out 'flag'.

Or not, if you like. I have also experienced the GR site's hiccups in posting a single comment multiple times unexpectedly! : ) I think we all understand what happened.

My impression is that because of the rivalry between the French and the English, Perrault insisted on doing the procedures a bit differently, and those differences caused the failures. I just got to the "infamous" animal-to-human transfusions and quite amazed that some of them seem to be working!

It is amazing today's science and medical techniques and knowledge were developed from such primitive beginnings.

I just finished. It was an interesting read. I see parallels from this book in today's world. Primarily the fear over genetic engineering and modification. I would like to read more historical science.

I just finished. It was an interesting read. I see parallels from this book in today's world. Primarily the fear over genetic engineering and modification. I would like to read more historical science.

Hopefully, the sense of aristocratic privilege no longer allows such excesses above the law, if laws existed (I think the story shows how the power of the aristocracy and the upper classes is eroding slightly) although obviously there was and is still plenty of feeling that education, money and race should permit deadly experimentation on people of less means or less 'stature'. Today, some pharmaceutical companies operate under the cover of 'consent'.

I finished the book tonight. . What an amazing history! Great book and well-researched.

My opinion: I approve of research and experimentation. I wish people would stop getting horrified over cells that happen to come from fetal tissue (human embryonic stem cells) and I heartily support stem cell research. Obviously, there must be rules.

However, pulling in a 15-year-old boy and a drunken crazy person off of the streets, tying them down to cut them open and pump animal blood into them without giving them an honest explanation of what was occuring or that telling them animal to animal transfusions had caused death or sickness was unforgivable. Why not have 'doctors' or other educated peers volunteer? The answer is obvious. Poor people were of no consequence, at the same level of dumb animal intelligence in these doctors eyes as the 'unintelligent' dog 'machines'.

I really thought the book is excellent. It covers all of the bases of the beginnings of the art of transfusion in the 17th century, and how overwhelming in ambition early leading researchers could be at the same time as benefiting biological science.

It is a great read. What amazes me is that all this experimentation was happening more than two centuries before blood typing was discovered. It took that long for people to figure out that blood transfusions caused death often because of incompatible blood types! And yes, by today's standards both the animal and human experiments were unethical. I guess it took a lot of suffering for ethical standards to be put in place!

April, that's already happening. Maybe not so much with experimentation, but a lot of people/countries are being getting genetically engineered organisms which could potentially save millions all because of common fear and misconceptions, which a lot of the times is a result of wealthier people in places like the US throwing a fit over it. Same with vaccines. Millions of people die every year in places like Africa and Central America due to low vaccine rates. Then here in America we have "wealthier" individuals refusing vaccinations simply because they don't understand science and/or think it's all one big conspiracy.

I got my flu shot last week.

: p

I love how the author styled the book to be immersive in the time period and the cast, though as others have stated it was difficult to read the details of the animal experiments. I wouldn't have it any other way--there's no point in blinding ourselves from what actually happened--but despite keeping that in mind it kept the book's overall likeability factor down.

It was amazing how some of the content initially seemed irrelevant to the title and subtitle, but those apparent irrelevances weaved into the time's societal conscience toward medicine and research. For instance there is a part where Rene Descartes suggested that animals lacked souls and therefore could not feel pain. But Tucker addressed that some of the populous opposed Descartes's philosophy and the experimentation. Good to know that despite the lack of legal protection back then some people did value ethical treatment of animals.

There's also interesting insight the history of physicians. We may tease modern doctors for not spending time with patients, but the 1600s they merely told other people how to administer treatments. Arguably they didn't learn medicine--none of the philosophies mentioned in the book came from biology, and even shunned chemistry. I would love to find a book that more broadly addresses the history of medicine.