Phlebotomy: The Ancient
Art of Bloodletting
The practice of bloodletting seemed logical when the foundation of all medical treatment was based on the four body humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Health was thought to be restored by purging, starving, vomiting or bloodletting.
The art of bloodletting was flourishing well before Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C. By the middle ages, both surgeons and barbers were specializing in this bloody practice. Barbers advertised with a red (for blood) and white (for tourniquet) striped pole. The pole itself represented the stick squeezed by the patient to dilate the veins.
Bloodletting came to the U. S. on the Mayflower. The practice reached unbelievable heights in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The first U.S. president, George Washington, died from a throat infection in 1799 after being drained of nine pints of blood within 24 hours. The draining of 16-30 ounces (one to four pints) of blood was typical. Blood was often caught in a shallow bowl. When the patient became faint, the "treatment" was stopped. Bleeding was often encouraged over large areas of the body by multiple incisions. By the end of the 19th century (1875-1900), phlebotomy was declared quackery.
A variety of devices were used to draw blood:
Spring loaded lancet
Blood was caught in shallow bowls. During the 17th to 19th
centuries, blood was also captured in small flint glass cups.
Heated air inside the cups created a vacuum causing blood to
flow into the cup - a handy technique for drawing blood from
a localized area. This practice was called cupping.
Graphics from the Truax, Green & Co. (Chicago) Price List: Spring Lancet #5125. $.70; Scarificator #5126, $3.25; and Plan Glass Cupper #5142, $.08.
ONLINE INFORMATION: The UCLA Biomedical Library has a multi-page exhibit on bloodletting including graphics of bloodletting devices. Bloodletting Antiques by Douglas Arbittier, M.D. features fast-loading thumbnails of devices, leach bowls and cupping sets. For other ancient devices, see Greek and Roman Surgical Instruments, part of the Asclepion, a University of Indiana site devoted to the study of ancient medicine.
HISTORY OF BLOODLETTING
And YES there are people who still practice Phlebotomy! - Phlebotomy.com
Watch clips of curator Bob McCoy's
many television appearances in our: