Blood: The Paramount Humour

Jonathan Cape Ltd. Very Good/Very Good. 1973. Hard Cover. 8vo 0224006312 Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. Neat inscription. Illustrations. Plates. 288 pages. .Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 3.8 cm There is no shortage of irrational or unscientific ideas about the supposed properties of human blood. Mostly these are folk theories which neither survive practical tests nor lend themselves to fruitful application in a modern context. But they still influence our language and customs. As a result, we speak of blood brotherhood and blood-feuds; of the blood of our fathers, blood relations, blood poisoning and sang-froid; of princes of the blood who may own blood-horses, bloodhounds and bloodstones; and of people or ideas which are cold-blooded, blood-curdling, blood-thirsty, bloody-minded, sanguine, clottish or plain bloody stupid. There are similar ranges of expression relating to the heart and veins. In some ways the symbolism in these notions is in accord with current technical knowledge, but in others it only reflects `epidemic pseudo-doxies' (Sir Thomas Browne's famous Greekery for `vulgar errors'), which are better identified if ideas are to be clear. Actually, although we believe we live in an age of enlightenment, the total weight of written superstition has never been greater, and even good newspapers are full of pseudo-psychology, fads, fundamentalism, occult lore and astrology. This is because entire literate populations are able to amuse themselves by reading and writing. In part, it is a form of playing-about, and not to be taken too seriously, but much old wives' talk is more than half believed. There are those who get spots on the face because `their blood is too rich' and patent medicines are still taken to cool or clean it. Among Anglo-Saxon peoples, betrothal rings are worn on the third finger of the left hand-the `leech finger'-because it `hits a vein which leads directly to the heart'. It is widely known that blood-letting was once a common treatment for disease, so why has it been abandoned? Or hasn't it? And is it true that some of the seven layers of skin are missing from a haemophiliac so that he will bleed to death from a scratch? Or is it that his skin is too tight? And if not, then what is haemophilia anyway? and leukaemia? and blood ,pressure? and phlebitis? and pernicious anaemia? Just how do you give transfusions? Are there vampires? Do cobwebs staunch bleeding? Is blood alive? Does a woman's blood run through the baby inside her? Is there a difference between the bloods of black and white peoples? How much blood is in you? What did a leech do? What about the miraculous annual liquefaction of the preserved blood of St Januarius, the patron saint of Naples? Do pelicans feed their own blood to their young ones? What was in the old apothecary's drawer labelled `Dragon's Blood'? What blood tests are used when paternity is disputed? Can you really die of a broken heart? And dreams of blood, are they significant? An examination of these and similar questions can reasonably be made into an unpretentious book, which will then become an easy bridge between haematology (the scientific study of blood) and what one may call haematosophy (or traditional bloody wisdom). .