EXTRAORDINARY RESULT OF TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6829, 6 October 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

EXTRAORDINARY RESULT OF TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD.

On Saturday night (says the Stockton Independent, a Californian newspaper) Deputy Sheriff Frank Mofiatt, of Oakland, arrived with an insane patient whose case is 000 of the most extraordinary on record. The crazy man, Roger Williams, is about twentyeight years of age, tall, and of extremely' slender build. He is a graduate of an Eastern college of high repute. Overwork in his profession prostrated his strength, and feeling that country air and outdoor wort would Jje the best tonic fur his shattered, system, he went to work on a farm in the vicinity of Livermore. For a tiire he seemed to improve, but after three or four months he gave evidences of pulmonary disease, an! there was also a wasting away of blood and tissue that left him almost a skeleton. A young medical student suggested that Williams should submit to an experiment in transfusion of blood, in hope that he would gain strength by it. Th« instruments were secured, but no one could be found who was willing to be bled on behalf of Roger, and a calf was suggested as the blood supply, but finally it was decided to sacrifice a cat, or a whole colony of cats. The operation was performed, the blood being taken from a number of cats, and injected into the veins of Williams. The experiment was to an extent successful. The man gained strength, and had hopo of ultimate recovery, but soon he began to brood over the consequences of incorporating the blood of cats into his own system, and so heavily did it weigh upon his mind that his friend feared for his sanity. He refused to go to bed, saying that lie believed he was being transformed into a cat, and preferred to sliep on a rug before the fire. At night, when not asleep, ho would wander about the house, jumping the garden fence until tired out, when he >vou'd climb to the roof and perch on the chimney. He sought the society of other cats, and at intervals would try to fight with them, only succeeding, however, in scaring them away, when he would retire to the house until rested. He manifested the greatest terror of broom-handles and bootjacks, and at last his mania so grew on him that he was confined until examined for commitment to the asylum. During the examination he showed a propensity for jumping, several .limes running on all-fours and springing over the doctors. Once he jumped through the window, taking the Bash'nith him, and until he was put in a strait-jacket could not be kept stilt. All the time of his antics he kept up an ear-piercing mewing, and at the sight of dogs became frantic. Wben placed in charge of Deputy Moffatfc he was tolerably quiet, but soon after getting on the train he tried to jump through the window, and he was strapped to the seat. At the depot he got loose and tried to escape under the platform, but was finally lodged in a place of safe keeping. It is not certain whether the cat blood set him crazy, or whether a pie-existing mental weakness fastened upon the incidents of transfusion to set him completely crazy.