Rev Invest Clin
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The idea of transfusing blood of an animal to another or from an animal to a man or from one to another man, is very ancient. When the doctrine of blood circulation was diffused, in the first third of the XVII century, this idea was give fresh impetus. On began also to inject some substance into the blood, wich will permit to introduce medicaments intravenously. ⋯ At the time persisted the problem of blood coagulation, which could be resolved during the XX century in North America (Crile, 1906) as well as in Latin America (Luis Agote, 1914). Moreover the blood groups were described in 1900 by the Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner, who identified later the Rh factor. It seems completely justified the inscription shining on the façade of the National Archive in Washington: "The past is only prologue".