Lower, Richard (1631–1691)

English physician and physiologist who performed the first direct transfusion of blood in 1666 and was the first to link the process of respiration with the blood.

Christopher Wren, the English architect and natural philosopher, was the first person to inject into the veins of animals. The medicinal fluids he injected produced effects varying from vomiting to purging to intoxication. Wren's work led directly to the first transfusion of blood from an artery of one animal to the vein of another. Lower performed this using quills to connect the two vessels but he later moved on to fine silver tubes. Jean Baptiste Denys was the first to transfuse a person. He transfused a 15-year-old boy with the blood from the artery of a lamb in 1667. Lower made a direct transfusion of a man from a sheep in London five months later. Three weeks later Lower gave the same man a second transfusion with no ill effects. However, it was not until the 19th century that transfusion of human patients was performed for therapeutic purposes and blood compatabilities were determined.