ABSTRACT
An alternative to blood transfusion was tried in Toronto in 1854 during a cholera epidemic: transfusion of cow’s milk. The underlying rationale was that milk would turn into white blood cells. Of the seven patients treated by intravenous transfusion of 12 ounces of milk, five died but two allegedly got better. Twenty years later in New York, intravenous sheep milk infusion was used as a treatment for terminal tuberculosis for two patients. One died in four hours and the other in 24 hours. Seven more patients were treated in New York between 1875 and 1879, by a Dr T G Thomas who claimed that fever, tachycardia and headache were all improved after a while, and predicted a ‘brilliant and advantageous future’ for intravenous milk infusion. Some enthusiasts even went so far as to predict that milk would eventually replace blood completely in transfusion work.
