Every living being, whether alive years ago or still present, constantly lives in a state of change. Humans and their belief systems have evolved over time; for instance, science and medicine come a long way from the past to today, and continue to further unravel. Written by Linda Lafferty, The Bloodletter's Daughter is a novel that touches on a piece of people´s history in the early 1600s. Early science and development serves as one of quite a few outstanding themes within the book. One practice in particular, regarding science and medicine, exceeded the use and significance of all others; ¨This practice was called bloodletting and was the most common procedure performed by surgeons for almost two thousand years¨ (Science Museum 1). Bloodletting
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This practice flourished throughout the world from before the middle ages to the late 19th century and ¨is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt¨… and spread to Greece, and diffused all throughout the Roman Empire… and ¨before long it flourished in India and the Arab world as well¨ (Cohen 1). Also making its way to the young Americas, bloodletting was a global demand for medical treatments for a vast range of illnesses. With the early times during this point in history came ignorance, however many bright people began guiding the way to a more knowledgable future that is now today. Erasistratus, who lived in the third century B.C. in Greece and was one of the early physicians with the founding beliefs of bloodletting, ¨believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood, or plethora. (Erasistratus also thought arteries transported air rather than blood…)¨ (1). Erasistratus carried great influence on bloodletting and assisted its dispersion throughout the Roman Empire through his words both written and spoken. He founded a school dedicated to anatomy and carried out heaping amounts of research. In a time after Erasistratus, there was Galen, who was also an influential physician, surgeon and philosopher and had a great impact on the Roman Empire. Having that he was greatly …show more content…
These four humors consist of blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. The fact that illness was thought to come from these four humors that needed to be purged from the body if a person was sick shows that science and medicine really have come a long way; scientists are able to look back on the early physicians in awe and wonder how that was once a logical treatment for such a variety of illnesses. Erstwhile physicians strongly believed that ¨bloodletting was divided into a generalized method done by venesection and arteriotomy, and a localized method done by scarification with cupping and leeches¨ (The History of Bloodletting 1). Venesection, otherwise known as phlebotomy, is the opening or puncturing of a vein surgically to let blood or allow a different fluid in, and arteriotomy consists of the same actions but for arteries. These are considered to make up the generalized method of bloodletting because limitations to a specific
This practice flourished throughout the world from before the middle ages to the late 19th century and ¨is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt¨… and spread to Greece, and diffused all throughout the Roman Empire… and ¨before long it flourished in India and the Arab world as well¨ (Cohen 1). Also making its way to the young Americas, bloodletting was a global demand for medical treatments for a vast range of illnesses. With the early times during this point in history came ignorance, however many bright people began guiding the way to a more knowledgable future that is now today. Erasistratus, who lived in the third century B.C. in Greece and was one of the early physicians with the founding beliefs of bloodletting, ¨believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood, or plethora. (Erasistratus also thought arteries transported air rather than blood…)¨ (1). Erasistratus carried great influence on bloodletting and assisted its dispersion throughout the Roman Empire through his words both written and spoken. He founded a school dedicated to anatomy and carried out heaping amounts of research. In a time after Erasistratus, there was Galen, who was also an influential physician, surgeon and philosopher and had a great impact on the Roman Empire. Having that he was greatly …show more content…
These four humors consist of blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. The fact that illness was thought to come from these four humors that needed to be purged from the body if a person was sick shows that science and medicine really have come a long way; scientists are able to look back on the early physicians in awe and wonder how that was once a logical treatment for such a variety of illnesses. Erstwhile physicians strongly believed that ¨bloodletting was divided into a generalized method done by venesection and arteriotomy, and a localized method done by scarification with cupping and leeches¨ (The History of Bloodletting 1). Venesection, otherwise known as phlebotomy, is the opening or puncturing of a vein surgically to let blood or allow a different fluid in, and arteriotomy consists of the same actions but for arteries. These are considered to make up the generalized method of bloodletting because limitations to a specific