Physicians' Gallery Newsletter
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Bad Blood
This blog was developed to accompany the exhibition Rag: A History of Blood (27 February 2026 - 16 October 2026).
Blood has been studied and analysed for thousands of years. The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that the heart was the seat of intelligence and emotions and that the blood carried the body’s ‘divine breath’, or its soul, around the body. Greek doctors thought that blood didn’t just influence a person’s physical health but also their character and their state of mind.
For hundreds of years doctors confused causes with symptoms – if patients with tuberculosis coughed up blood, if dysentery caused bloody diarrhoea – well, bad blood must be the cause.
Over time more accurate tests were developed to study blood. First, in the late-1800s, the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in blood. Then more and more – tests for cholesterol levels, for anaemia, for allergies, infections and problems with the immune system. Doctors began to study blood to detect diabetes, cancers, vitamin deficiencies, sexually transmitted diseases and problems with the heart, liver and lungs.
Bartolomeo Eustachio, Tabulae Anatomicae (1714)
Doctors in Ancient Greece believed that the veins and arteries were two entirely separate circulatory systems, with arteries coming from the heart and veins from the liver. According to this idea, veins contained only blood, while arteries contained a kind of vital spirit. This idea of a twin-circulatory system continued into the Renaissance. At that time anatomists began to study and question the mechanisms of circulation and the workings of the arteries and veins.
This book was compiled in the mid-1500s, although it was first published over 150 years later. In it, the Italian anatomist Eustachio explored his own ideas around blood circulation. Eustachio’s discoveries included a valve in the heart which functions only during foetal development.
William Harvey, De Motu Cordis (1654)
This book, first published in 1628, is the first text by an English writer to explain the process of blood circulation. Its author, physician William Harvey, described the heart as a pump, pushing the blood around the body. On a dissection table in his study, Harvey examined everything from mussels and eels to human cadavers.
The first known person to make the discovery of blood circulation was the Arabic physician Ibn al-Nafīs in the 1200s. Practicing in Cairo, he had made his discovery when studying the hearts of the corpses he dissected. The next description of pulmonary circulation was published in 1553 by Spanish physician Michael Servetus. Most copies of Servetus’ book were burnt by religious authorities after accusations of heresy were made against him.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Arcana Naturae Detecta (1695)
This is the first drawing ever made of a blood cell. The author of this work, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, was a Dutch draper and lensmaker, as well as a self-taught scientist. He advanced microscope technology enormously, using his technical skills to create incredibly powerful lenses. It was another 150 years before anyone was able to replicate his findings.
Leeuwenhoek was the first to discover single-celled organisms - he identified bacteria, protozoa and sperm cells. He studied coffee beans, orange seeds and elephant skin and examined rotting meat as well as his own faeces, the dirt between his toes and the plaque on his teeth. Leeuwenhoek shared his findings with the Royal Society of London who sent scientists to corroborate his remarkable discoveries.
Charles Bell, Engravings of the Arteries (1801)
Charles Bell was a trained anatomist and a trained artist. He taught anatomical art for students at Edinburgh’s infirmary and at various schools and hospitals around London. Bell used cadavers and living patients to demonstrate the anatomy which lay underneath facial expressions, postures and movement. Some of Bell’s critics argued that he was a better artist and teacher than he was a surgeon, given that the survival rate of the soldiers he performed amputations on during the Battle of Waterloo was only 10 per cent.
The hand-coloured engravings in this book were created by Bell to demonstrate the structure of the arteries and to explore the damage to the arteries which could be caused by bullets, scissors or ‘a thrust made with a small sword’.
Blood Pressure Monitor (c.1920)
This monitor was manufactured by a French company, Boulitte. It was made only a few decades after the first blood pressure monitor had been invented, in 1881. Blood pressure had been studied in animal experiments over 100 years earlier. This process had involved puncturing an artery and inserting a brass tube. But now there was a device which could easily, and painlessly, be used to measure blood pressure without breaking the skin.
This device works in much the same way as modern monitors – a cuff made of non-expanding material is wrapped around the arm. Inside the cuff is a rubber bag. The bag is inflated until the pulse stops and the pressure is then decreased until the pulse begins again.
William Hewson, Experimental Inquiries: Containing a Description of the Red Particles of the Blood (1777)
This illustration shows the different sizes and shapes of red blood cells across animal species. The author of this book was William Hewson - an anatomist from Northumberland. He studied blood extensively and made a series of important discoveries. He demonstrated that red blood cells are disc-shaped, instead of spherical as had previously been thought. He described clotting and isolated a key protein which was responsible for blood clotting. And he showed that cells had membranes.
Hewson ran an anatomy school in London. In 1998, workers restoring the building found thousands of fragments of human remains buried beneath the property. They showed signs of having been dissected – most likely Hewson had acquired the cadavers illegally for his anatomical study and then buried them afterwards to hide his crimes.
Haldane Haemoglobinometer (c.1950)
This device measures the haemoglobin concentration in blood. It was developed by the Edinburgh physician John Scott Haldane who was looking for a method to accurately test carbon dioxide levels. The process involved combining water and blood and then saturating the mixture with coal gas. The result was then compared to a colour chart which Haldane had designed.
There were flaws to Haldane’s system. The colour charts began to fade over time, while his original study had been flawed – based on a very small sample size. Haldane’s research also led him to develop the first decompression chamber for deep sea divers and to introduce the now-famous miner’s system of taking a canary into the mines as an early warning of gas build up.
