"Blood Work: Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution"

Writer and Vanderbilt professor Holly Tucker (Blood Work: Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution) examines the story of rogue French doctor Jean-Baptiste Denis, who performed the world's first blood transfusion (from animal to man, mind you) in 1667. When one of his patients died, Denis stood trial—though it was most likely poison, not the transfusion, that did it.