Bloodletting

An example of continuity in medicine

Why was bloodletting carried out?

• Blood was one of the Four Humours and bloodletting was a way of getting rid of excess blood and balancing the humours

• Galen also recommended regular bloodletting as a preventive measure – to keep you in good health

How was it done?

• By opening a vein and letting an amount of blood out

• There were several different ways of doing this

Cupping

• A flame was used to heat a small glass• This was then placed over a cut• As the air inside the glass cooled, it created a partial

vacuum and this increased the blood flow from the cut

Leeches

• Leeches bite through the skin and suck out blood. When they have had enough, they release their grip and can be removed

• Leeches were placed on different parts of the body, in different numbers, depending on the illness and astrological charts

• This was seen as a gentler way of bleeding a patient as less blood was taken

Continued use of bloodletting

• In the mid-nineteenth century many people still believed in regular blood letting even though the Four Humours was no longer the main theory used to explain illness

Why was bloodletting still being used in the nineteenth century?

Use the three points listed below to plan an answer to the essay question above

a)Galen’s ideas were the basis for medical training and treatment until the seventeenth centuryb)Even when miasma and spontaneous generation theories were being used to explain illness, these new ideas did not lead to alternative treatmentsc)People often dislike change and prefer to stick to the ideas and treatment they are used to