Will the Future Find Absurdity in Our Treatment Methods Like This?

Hey,

It’s Saturday; all day cloudy and 30-second rain—that’s the highlight.

I was searching for a topic and saw that drawing blood from the body was a treatment for a long time. That’s the story today!

Greek physician Hippocrates believed that the human body survives on the balance of four humors—black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Humors resonated with the four elements: earth, fire, water, and air, respectively. At that time, all diseases were considered to be an imbalance in the humors. And letting blood from the body was a cure for all possible sicknesses. That’s how bloodletting took place in Greek medical practice.

Another Greek physician, Galen, supported Hippocrates’ theories and practice and made the practice more intense. Two methods were famous for the practice—venesection and arteriotomy. Venesection is cutting into the knees or elbows and collecting blood in a bowl. Peculiar-looking knives called fleams and lancets were used to cut the body parts. Absurdity reaches its peak in the latter method. The arteriotomy is basically cupping or using leeches to draw out blood.

Yes, I checked whether it’s true! The cupping process is called scarification (read in detail if you're interested), and the second one is as it is written.

Some popular cases of bloodletting:

Between 1347- 1352 CE, to control the plague of the Black Death in Europe, this absurd treatment was performed and backfired badly. The death toll rose even more due to virus infections from unsanitized tools used to draw blood.

Another is King Charles II’s case. In 1685, he had a seizure, and his blood was drawn to treat it. (I wonder what kind of bacteria came out!)

And, and George Washington’s death was a historic one. He had a sore throat, fever, and respiratory problems. In a time span of 16 hours, 5 to 7 pints of blood were drawn, and he fell into a coma. After modern medicine progressed, it was found that excessive blood loss was the cause of his death.

Though all of this sounds unbelievable, to this day, in cases of polycythemia (too many red blood cells) and hemochromatosis (excessive iron), blood is drawn out—but with a decent approach, of course!

Had fun sharing this interesting method.

Let’s chat later!

Thanks,
Jessie.