…trawling eBay for Whovian bargains, my eye was caught by an entry which ran as follows:

Blood and Justice: The 17th Century Parisian Doctor Who

Sounds interesting – another bit of canon that I had been unaware of, I thought. But then I checked out the full listing:

The 17th Century Parisian doctor who made blood transfusion history…

In 1667 a Parisian doctor by the name of Jean-Baptiste Denis performed an operation that had never previously been attempted – he transfused blood into another human being.

Ah well, that explains it. (That phrase “made blood transfusion history” is odd, isn’t it? Makes it sound like he had it abolished!)