ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

August Otto Rühle von Lilienstern

August Otto Rühle von Lilienstern was a man who lived a long time ago. He was born in 1824 and died in 1896 – that's a really long time ago! He lived in Germany and was a very important person in the field of medicine.

Have you ever been to a doctor when you were sick? Well, August Otto Rühle von Lilienstern was kind of like a doctor, but instead of helping people who were already sick, he tried to figure out how to make people better before they got sick. He studied a lot about how people's bodies work and what kinds of things can make them healthy or sick.

One thing that August Otto Rühle von Lilienstern was really interested in was blood – that's the red stuff that runs through your veins and keeps you alive. He wanted to find out why some blood was good and healthy, while other blood was not so good and could make people very sick.

In order to study blood, August Otto Rühle von Lilienstern did a lot of experiments. He would take samples of blood from different people and animals, and then study them under a microscope to see what kinds of things were in the blood. He discovered that there were lots of different cells in the blood, each with their own special job.

August Otto Rühle von Lilienstern also discovered that there were different types of blood. Some people had one type of blood, while others had a different type. He found out that if someone with one type of blood got a transfusion (when doctors put someone else's blood into their body) with the wrong type of blood, it could make them very sick or even kill them! That's why doctors are always very careful when they give someone a transfusion.

So, August Otto Rühle von Lilienstern was a really smart man who learned a lot about how blood works in our bodies. Thanks to his research, doctors today are able to safely give transfusions to people who need them, without making them sick.