The context for that book was the Saratov affair on a ritual murder (1852-1858), particularly, the expertise of written testimonies, which was made by occasional persons. The author of the book, D. A. Khvolson (1819-1911), since 1855, has been Professor of the St. Petersburg University at the Chair of Hebrew and Syrian languages. The work was made from progressive point of view. The author believed, that enlightenment and science, i.e. explanation of misunderstandings leading to talks on the ‘blood libel’, could do them away.
The author mentioned two sides of the belief in ‘blood libel’: a) that Jews need blood for their religious rituals, b) that they need blood for witchcraft, sourcery, magic, medical purposes, etc. Then, he distinguished 16 standard point in the system of the ‘blood libel’, and coherently demonstrated their absurdity, classifying them into six groups:
‘1. evidencies of nullity of the accusation taken from history, religion, legal documents, literature, and common-day life of Jews; 2. nullity of the accusations produced from themselves; 3. evidencies that those accusations had no legal or historical justifications; 4. protection of Jews by Christened Jews; 5. protection of Jews by Christian rulers, popes, and scholars; 6. the evidence of absence of any Jewish sect, which justified those accusations’.
The book played an important role in justification of accused innocent people at the Kutaisi affair (1879), and at the Beilis affair. It was republished with additions in 1881, in 1912 (limited edition), and in 2010. In 1901, it was translated into German.