Podcast Challenge 2

Today, I finally finished Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revoluntion by Holly Tucker. Ever since I heard about this book on the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, one of my favorite questions has been "When do you think the first blood transfusions took place?" The answer is 1666 for animals and 1667 for people. This book walks us through the history of blood transfusions, including the scientific rivalry between England and France and the political aspects of medicine in France, as well as a history of science at that time. The main thrust of the book relates to one of the early human transfusions in France. The murder comes in when one of the first human subjects mysteriously dies within months of receiving  the transfusion. With so many people anti-transfusion at the time, the death of the subject creates a reason to ban transfusions all together, while allowing the transfusionist the believe that there is a conspiracy against him, one he hopes to overcome to continue his experiments.