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The Importance of History
Introduction
It is often said that history repeats itself and that the issues of today are often predated by similar events that happened in the past. From history, people can learn about who they were as well as find similarities between themselves and what their ancestors did before. It is from history that people get to learn about the major advancements as well as the developments that people in the past spearheaded. All that is available now is an improvement of the ideas that great thinkers and developers had in the past. In this article, three important events will be discussed. The first one is the first successful blood transfusion that happened in England. This was a major development in the field of medicine and helped to spearhead major developments. The second one involves the black plague or otherwise known as the Great Plague, which happened in London between 1665 and 1666. Historians agree that the Great Plague was the worst plague to be recorded in the history books with its effects compared to Black Death of 1348. Finally, this paper will explore the issue of slavery and law in Virginia. The specific year will be 1669, where an act that granted slave owners permission to kill slaves was enacted. All the above events set a precedence for a lot of things today and the years that followed. The world has built upon these things and continues to build upon them to advance the political, social, cultural, and economic aspects of life.
First Successful Blood Transfusion
People never give much thought to the importance of blood or its purpose in their bodies as long as they are okay. However, when one gets sick, this is the time people start obsessing over information regarding their health and try to learn as much as they can. In the past, little was known about the human body and how it functions. The medical field was still young, and physicians were learning the human body while learning the treatment methods as well. Blood transfusion was a foreign idea, and in the past, there was no proper equipment or environments to perform a blood transfusion. However, instead of giving up, the physicians of old, with their many limitations, made sure that it is normal for doctors today to conduct millions of blood transfusions in a year.
First, blood transfusion, as defined by Learoyd (2) is “the transference of blood from the circulation of one individual to that of another for practical therapeutic purposes.” Research regarding blood transfusion started a long time ago. However, as indicated by Learoyd (2), it “only became a practical possibility during and shortly after the Second World War.” However, as indicated before, nothing that is done today would have been possible without the contribution of the individuals who lived in the past. Even without the right equipment, these individuals worked hard to prove their worth to the world.
One name that has to be mentioned while discussing matters regarding blood transfusion is William Harvey. Ribatti (1) notes that Harvey is responsible for the discovery of the circulation of blood in people’s bodies. He explains that while “physicians of the time felt that the lungs were responsible for moving the blood around throughout the body,” Harvey thought otherwise and dug deeper. Eventually, he came with the notion that it is the heart and not the lungs that were responsible for blood circulation. Another name that must be mentioned in the discussion of blood transfusion is physician Richard Lower’s. Lower is regarded by many as the man behind blood transfusion. Through his work, blood transfusion was considered possible, and he thus set the stage for more research in the coming years. In 1665, Lower bled a dog almost to the point of death and then resuscitated it through transfusion. Maluf (62) agrees with Ribatti noting that indeed Lower “was to make the first direct transfusion” which turned out successful.
After Lower, other individuals came up including Jean-Baptise Denis, who transfused blood from an animal to a human being. This is captured by Mandal (np) who notes that successful blood transfusion between human beings was reported in 1818, but it was not until 1900 when Karl Landsteiner discovered the different blood groups. Initially, blood transfusion was done without the acknowledgement of blood groups. But Karl’s findings made things safer going forward as transfusions were done from the point of understanding.
Blood transfusions are essential in the medical field, and successful transfusion meant that more studies into what could be transfused came into the fold. In the end, the world has benefitted more from blood transfusion than the former scientists could foresee. With millions of transfusions done in a year and possibly thousands every day, it was indeed a great addition.
The Black Plague
England and Europe have had instances of major outbreaks that threatened the very fabric of life. In the 14th century, Europe and some parts of Asia experienced what came to be known as the Black Death. This was a major epidemic, and Benedictow (np) believes that this plague killed a whopping 60% of Europe’s population. A 2011 article from the BBC notes that a popular phrase was coined from this era. The phrase reads: “There was hardly enough living to care for the sick and bury the dead.” The situation was bad, and there are not enough words to quantify the deaths that took place at the time. As if the world had not had enough of the plague, it used to appear from time to time and England had a major outbreak between 1665 and 1666.
London suffered greatly, and Johnson notes that in the two years, the outbreak “spread from parish to parish until thousands had died and the huge pits dug to receive the bodies were full...