In his 1898 novel, War Of The Worlds, H.G. Wells depicted the earth under attack by a race that had evolved past the need of eating to obtain nourishment. These beings, in fact, had no digestive organs of any sort:
"Entrails they had none. They did not eat, much less digest. Instead, they took the fresh, living blood of other creatures and injected it into their veins…..The physiological advantages of the practice of injection are undeniable, if one thinks of the tremendous waste of human time and energy occasioned by eating and the digestive process. Our bodies are half made up of glands and tubes and organs, occupied in turning heterogeneous food into blood."
Although an entertaining read, Wells had completely misunderstood the function of blood even by the science of his day. Injecting the "fresh living blood of other creatures" will not sustain any being of flesh and blood because blood is not the "food" upon which the body is sustained, it is only the transport mechanism.
Well's idea reflected a centuries old misconception about blood that goes back at least to Galen in the 2nd century. This week's installment in the science quotes of "Celebrated JW scholars" concerns what is arguably the mother of all their science blunders. It will show with scans from their period literature that these "Celebrated scholars" conceived and formulated the prohibition against transfusion medicine based primarily on the same fallacious reasoning of H.G. Wells.
Although there are passing references here and there, the very first direct condemnation of transfusion medicine ever to appear in JW literature is from the December 1, 1944 issue of The Watchtower, page 362:
You can see that transfusion is directly linked with eating blood, but the basis for the link is not actually explained. A similar quote appears in the July 1, 1945 issue of The Watchtower on page 200.
The September 22, 1949 issue of Awake! featured an entire article on the subject, but the reasoning was almost enitirely circular. Blood transfusion is unscriptural....because it is unscriptural. Oh, and it was practised by the ancient Egyptians; the enemies of God's people.....
The December 1, 1949 issue of The Watchtower also spoke against transfusion. This time they actually stated a quasi-scientific justification for the link.
Transfusion is claimed to be simply a more direct route to the blood stream than eating. Not surprisingly, these 1949 Watchtower and Awake! articles precipitated a flood of letters from within the Witness community and it became necessary to address the major points of dissent. The link between the eating of blood and the transfusion of blood was finally stated openly in the July 1, 1951 issue of The Watchtower on page 415:
And there you have it. Transfusion is held to be exactly the same thing as intravenous feeding. The original 1953 edtion of the book Make Sure Of All Things included this view as an official answer for believing Jehovah's Witnesses to give to outsiders:
As strange as it may seem, the JW prohibition against transfusion medicine originated from of all things, a premise also found in 19th century science fiction. "Celebrated JW scholars" had completely misunderstood the function of blood.