Blood counts

“There is little evidence to suggest, however, that the calls for blood tests were quickly heeded. The published literature suggests, instead, that well into the twentieth century blood counts were a distinctly unusual event. . . the occasional allusions to routine use of the blood count paint a picture of a technique talked about a great deal but used very little (Howell VI, 185) . . . . At NY Hospital less than 4 percent of all of the patients admitted in 1900 had a blood count performed. At the PA Hospital that percentage was only slightly higher than 5 percent. But in both hospitals, by 1920, almost one out of every three patients admitted had a blood count done” (187).