I have another revelation to make."
He laid down on the table under the lights, which now flashed up
again, the little hollow silver cylinder,
"This little instrument," Kennedy explained, "which I have here is
known as a canula, a little canal, for leading off blood from the
veins of one person to another--in other words, blood transfusion.
Modern doctors are proving themselves quite successful in its use.
"Of course, like everything, it has its own peculiar dangers. But
the one point I wish to make is this: In the selection of a donor
for transfusion, people fall into definite groups. Tests of blood
must be made first to see whether it 'agglutinates,' and in this
respect there are four classes of persons. In our case this matter
had to be neglected. For, gentlemen, there were two kinds of blood
on that laboratory floor, and they do not agglutinate. This, in
short, was what actually happened. An attempt was made to
transfuse Cushing's blood as donor to another person as recipient.
A man suffering from the disease caught from the bite of the tse-
tse fly--the deadly sleeping sickness so well known in Africa--has
deliberately tried a form of robbery which I believe to be without
parallel.
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