PLPA 2003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Venipuncture, Phlebotomy, Humorism
Document Summary
Emphasized importance of diet, environment, lifestyle, and natural healing ability of body: 460-377 bc. Theory that disease resulted from deficiency or excess of one of 4 humors . Black bile = blood in bile or abstract concept? earth. Venesection = bloodletting: phlebotomy = barber (doctor) cutting specific veins to drain different humors, leech application (promote blood flow, cupping. More harm than help: george washington died in 1799. Lost 1 2 of blood supply in treatment for severe sore throat. Choleric (angry) yellow bile hot and dry. Melancholic (depressed) black bile cold and dry. Miasmatic theory of disease (middle ages to mid 1800s: miasma= bad air , suddenly and large population, idea that many diseases were caused by poisonous vapors, swamp gas, sewers, etc. , some sanitary reforms made! Idea that microbes that were observed in diseased tissue were result of disease/putrefaction and not the cause.
