[Blood as therapy, therapy through the blood].

The paper deals first with the use of human blood as a means of therapeutic treatment in the Antiquity and in the Early Modern age, especially focusing on blood therapy in Paracelsian and iatrochemical practice. It deals then with the origins of the chirurgia infusoria--the injection of substances in the patient's veins--in Europe in the 17th century, examining the Italian contribution to the development of the technique and its role in Giorgio Baglivi's medical research.