“You will know whether you belong to Group A, B, O or even AB. The reason for testing is to avoid a possibly fatal reaction if you were to be transfused with unmatched blood. You cannot tell, just by looking, what blood group a person belongs to. Unlike hair and eye colour or the shape of heads, blood groups are an invisible signal of genetic difference which can be discovered only by carrying out a specific test. Though the first blood transfusions were performed in Italy in 1628, so many peopl...e died that the procedure was banned. As a desperate measure to save women who were haemorrhaging after childbirth, there was a revival of transfusion in the mid-nineteenth century. Though some patients had no problems accepting a transfusion, a great many patients died from their reaction to the transfused blood. What caused the reaction was a mystery. The puzzle was eventually solved in 1900 by the Austrian physiologist Karl Landsteiner. After experimenting with mixing the blood of his laboratory dogs and observing their cross-reactions, he began his work on humans.MoreLessRead More Read Less
User Reviews: