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Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 59: November 1667 by Samuel Pepys
page 26 of 37 (70%)
submit so much as to have their power disputed. And it is conceived that
much of this eagerness among the Lords do arise from the fear some of them
have, that they may be dealt with in the same manner themselves, and
therefore do stand upon it now. It seems my Lord Clarendon hath, as is
said and believed, had his horses several times in his coach, ready to
carry him to the Tower, expecting a message to that purpose; but by this
means his case is like to be laid by. From this we fell to other
discourse, and very good; among the rest they discourse of a man that is a
little frantic, that hath been a kind of minister, Dr. Wilkins saying that
he hath read for him in his church, that is poor and a debauched man, that
the College' have hired for 20s. to have some of the blood of a sheep let
into his body; and it is to be done on Saturday next.

[This was Arthur Coga, who had studied at Cambridge, and was said to
be a bachelor of divinity. He was indigent, and "looked upon as a
very freakish and extravagant man." Dr. King, in a letter to the
Hon. Robert Boyle, remarks "that Mr. Coga was about thirty-two
years of age; that he spoke Latin well, when he was in company,
which he liked, but that his brain was sometimes a little too warm."
The experiment was performed on November 23rd, 1667, by Dr. King, at
Arundel House, in the presence of many spectators of quality, and
four or five physicians. Coga wrote a description of his own case
in Latin, and when asked why he had not the blood of some other
creature, instead of that of a sheep, transfused into him, answered,
"Sanguis ovis symbolicam quandam facultatem habet cum sanguine
Christi, quia Christus est agnus Dei" (Birch's "History of the Royal
Society," vol. ii., pp. 214-16). Coga was the first person in
England to be experimented upon; previous experiments were made by
the transfusion of the blood of one dog into another. See November
14th, 1666 (vol. vi., p. 64).]
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