![James Blundell (physician)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/James_Blundell_%28physician%29.jpg)
James Blundell (27 December 1790, in
Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its roots ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
– 15 January 1878, in
St George Hanover Square
St George Hanover Square was a civil parish created in 1724 in the Liberty of Westminster, Middlesex, which was later part of the metropolitan area of London, England.
The creation of the parish accompanied the building of St George's, Hanove ...
, London) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
obstetrician
Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...
who performed the first successful
transfusion of human blood to a patient for treatment of a
haemorrhage
Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vagi ...
.
[Ellis, H. ''Surgical Anniversaries]
James Blundell, pioneer of blood transfusion
' British Journal of Hospital Medicine, August 2007, Vol 68, No 8.
Early years
James Blundell was born in London. His father's name was Major Blundell and mother was Sarah Ann Haighton. Major owned a company called Major Blundell and Co. Haberdashers, and Drapers in London.
Like his uncle, who had developed several instruments still used today for the delivery of babies, James specialized in the field of obstetrics. Later he graduated from the
University of Edinburgh Medical School
The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. It was esta ...
with his MD in 1813. A year later he began his career in London by lecturing on midwifery and physiology.
By 1818, he succeeded his uncle and became the lecturer on both subjects at Guy's Hospital where his classes on obstetrics and the diseases of women were reported to be the largest in London.
Blood transfusion work
In 1818, Blundell proposed that a blood transfusion would be appropriate to treat severe
postpartum hemorrhage
Postpartum bleeding or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is often defined as the loss of more than 500 ml or 1,000 ml of blood following childbirth. Some have added the requirement that there also be signs or symptoms of low blood volume for ...
. He had seen many of his patients dying in
childbirth
Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births globall ...
, and determined to develop a remedy. However, he was also familiar with the work of Leacock in Edinburgh, who said that the transfer of
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...
from one
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
would be harmful to another.
[ Therefore, Blundell conducted a series of experiments using animals, and observed that as long as the blood was transfused quickly, a transfusion would be successful with a ]syringe
A syringe is a simple reciprocating pump consisting of a plunger (though in modern syringes, it is actually a piston) that fits tightly within a cylindrical tube called a barrel. The plunger can be linearly pulled and pushed along the inside ...
even after it had been collected in a container. He also discovered the importance of letting all the air out of a syringe prior to the transfusion.
Blundell performed the first successful human to human transfusion in 1818. In 1829, he reported this transfusion in an article in the medical journal Lancet. Dr. Blundell extracted four ounces of blood from the arm of the patient's husband using a syringe, and successfully transfused it into the patient. Over the course of five years, he conducted ten documented blood transfusions, five of which were beneficial to the patients, and published these results. During his life he also devised many instruments for the transfusion of blood, many of which are still in use today.
He became the author of ''Researches Physiological and Pathological'' in 1824 and wrote two papers on abdominal surgery and blood transfusion, both edited by S. Ashwell. Later publications include ''Principles and Practice of Obstetricy'' in 1834 and ''Observations on some of the More Important Diseases of Women'' in 1837. In using the uterine sound for diagnostic purposes, he was considered more advanced than other obstetricians of the day.
Later life
He left Guy's in 1834 following a dispute with the hospital treasurer. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1838, and later published ''Hexametrical Experiments, or, A version of four of Virgil's pastorals... with hints to explain the method of reading, and a slight essay on the laws of metre'' that year.
Dr. Blundell never married, but lived with his grand niece Mary Ann Harriet Noyes. From the 1871 British Census
Events January–March
* January 3 – Franco-Prussian War – Battle of Bapaume: Prussians win a strategic victory.
* January 18 – Proclamation of the German Empire: The member states of the North German Confederation and the so ...
, we know he was living at 80 Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...
in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, but he also had a home in Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
at No. 1 Great George Street
Great George Street is a street in Westminster, London, leading from Parliament Square to Birdcage Walk. The area of the current street was occupied by a number of small roads and yards housing inns and tenements. In the 1750s these were demol ...
.
Dr. Blundell retired from practice in 1847. In his final years, it is said that he never rose before noon, saw patients in the afternoon, dined and then saw more patients after 8 or 9 pm. He always carried books with him, and was able to read them in his carriage by the installation of a special light.
Death
James Blundell died on 15 January 1878 in London, aged 87. His will, dated 11 April 1857 with a codicil of 27 March 1876, was proven on 29 January by his nephew Dr. George Augustus Frederick Wilks. His estate was valued at £350,000 at the time, today equivalent of over £45,000,000. The fortune had been amassed by his large private practice and significant bequests. Much of it was left to his niece Sarah Haighton Noyes (née Wilks) whose husband Henry Crine Noyes had died five years earlier.
References
;Attribution
Sources
* non. "Blundell, James (1790–1878)." Rev. Anne Digby. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2713 (accessed 11 December 2008).
*Personal Papers of the Noyes Family, in the possession of Cameron Bryant.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blundell, James
1790 births
1878 deaths
People from Holborn
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
19th-century English medical doctors
English obstetricians