A sharp-eyed expose of the deadly politics, murderous plots, and cutthroat rivalries behind the first blood transfusions in seventeenth-century Europe.

The doctor and the madman -- Circulation -- The age of vivisection -- Plague and fire -- Philosophical transactions -- Noble ambitions -- How high will he not climb? -- The king's library -- The philosopher's stone -- The blood of a beast -- The Tower of London -- Bedlam -- Monsters and marvels -- The widow -- The affair of the poisons -- Chimeras.