BLOODLETTING INSTRUMENTS - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

ABSTRACT
Davis, Audrey, and Toby Appel. Bloodletting Instruments in the National
Museum of History and Technology. Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology,
number 41, 103 pages, 124 figures, 1979.—Supported by variety o£ instruments,
bloodletting became a recommended practice in antiquity and remained
an accepted treatment for millenia. Punctuated by controversies over the amount
of blood to take, the time to abstract it, and the areas from which to remove it,
bloodletters employed a wide range of instruments. All the major types of equipment
and many variations are represented in this study of the collection in the
National Museum of History and Technology.
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded
in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. COVER DESIGN: "Phlebotomy, 1520" (from
Seitz, 1520, as illustrated in Hermann Peter, Der Ant und die Heilkunst, Leipzig, 1900; photo
courtesy of NLM).
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Davis, Audrey B
Bloodletting instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology.
(Smithsonian studies in history and technology ; no. 41)
Bibliography; p.
Supt. of Docs, no.: SI 1.28:41
1. Bloodletting—Instruments—Catalogs. 2. Bloodletting—History. 3. National Museum of History
and Technology. I. Appel, Toby, 1945- joint author. II. Title. III. Series: Smithsonian
Institution. Smithsonian studies in history and technology ; no. 41 [DNLM: 1. Bloodletting—History.
2. Bloodletting—Instrumentation—Catalogs. 3. Bloodletting—Exhibitions—
Catalogs.
RM182.D38 617'.9178 78-606043