Bloodletting Research Articles

Arterial bloodletting during operation as aid in hemostasis

Arterial bloodletting during operation as aid in hemostasis

The Nephrotic Syndrome

HypoproteinemiaThe return of the plasma protein concentration toward normal as the urinary protein loss decreases indicates clearly that proteinuria is most important in the pathogenesis of hypoproteinemia. However, there is reason to believe that other factors are concerned in this phenomenon. On occasion the daily protein loss may exceed 30 gm., but usually it lies between 5 and 10 gm.74, 75 This appears to be relatively small in terms of protein replacement capacity. Co Tui76 estimates, on the basis of changes observed in animals after plasmapheresis and in human blood donors after repeated blood letting, that normal man should be . . .

THE RATE OF SEDIMENTATION OF THE ERYTHROCYTES IN RHEUMATIC INFECTION IN CHILDREN

Observations regarding the rate of sedimentation of the erythrocytes are sufficiently ancient to lend dignity and interest to the problem offered by the variation of this rate in rheumatic infection in children. Galen 1 recorded that in certain conditions, particularly in severe infections, rapidly settled out, leaving a clear yellow serum. Several other clinicians made similar comments during the period when blood letting was popular. These observations were not crystallized into a test of value until 1897, when Bienacki 2 proposed a method of measuring the speed with which red cells were separated from the plasma. There have been numerous modifications of his method, and the names of Fahraeus, Westergren and Linzenmeier are familiar in the literature on the subject. The basis of all the tests suggested is the time required for the erythrocytes to settle out of their suspension in the plasma. Fahraeus explained the change in the

Essay on the External Use of Water.

In his introduction to this eighteenth century classic in balneology, the editor points out that in Smollett's literary works there is a clear picture of contemporary medicine. Although he took a medical degree (in 1750), served his professional apprenticeship at Glasgow, was warranted surgeon's second mate in the British navy, and cultivated throughout life the friendship of physicians, he devoted himself to literature almost exclusively soon after receiving his medical degree. The adventures of his heroes, and his biographic vignettes, roguish satire and searching observations, are all much concerned with the state of medicine in his time. His comments on medicine include such items as the conduct of medical examinations, the grades in the professional hierarchy and the jealousies existing among their constituents, the dependence on blood letting for any and all of multitudinous ailments, the physical ordeals that try the mettle of the country practitioner, the growing distrust in

The relationship between toxemia of pregnancy and uterine sepsis from a study of 400 toxemic cases

The relationship between toxemia of pregnancy and uterine sepsis from a study of 400 toxemic cases

THE ABUSES AND USES OF VENESECTION IN THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.

Though for centuries venesection was considered one of the most valuable methods to be employed in the cure of disease, it has now fallen entirely out of use. The present generation of physicians, indeed, has seen so little of the practice of blood letting as a therapeutic agent that it is hard for them to realize how universally it was used even as late as the middle of the last century. At the time the writer commenced the study of medicine (about fifty years ago) the favorite text-book used by medical students was Watson's Practice of Medicine. It was indeed a charming book, and one that for beauty of style and literary diction could not be surpassed. It was, however, in some respects a most discouraging book. Watson would give the most vivid pictures of the symptoms and progress of diseases and yet when it came to their treatment all

Blood-letting.

Blood-letting.

The Asclepiad. by Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, M.D., F.R.S. 3rd Quarter, 1893.

The biography of Robt. Boyle, which this number contains, will be read with much interest, and is written in Sir Benjamin Richardson's usual felicitous style. The portrait which accompanies it adds another to the admirable gallery of portraits which alone would make the “Asclepiad” of permanent value. The first article in this number of the “Asclepiad” will be read with interest—“The moment for blood letting”—seeing that Sir Benjamin Richardson can speak from experience of “the old and new practice.” The conclusion arrived at is that vevesection is useful now as formerly under the following conditions:—

SOME CONSIDERATIONS BEARING ON THE TREATMENT OF PNEUMONIA.Read before the Section of Practice of Medicine, at the Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association.

The conclusion seems forced upon us, by recent investigations as to the comparative mortality in cases of pneumonia, that the death rate from this disease is on the gradual increase, and has been on the increase since 1822. When we eliminate all elements of uncertainty and unfairness in the comparative statistics of various hospitals and institutions, we are compelled to admit that if the death rate has not actually very materially increased, it has not been reduced by our modern methods of treatment. Those methods of treatment differ very markedly from those in vogue during the first sixty years of this century. The best authorities during that period insisted that in this disease blood letting was "a remedy of indispensable necessity," and they were almost equally unanimous in their use of cathartics, blisters, and occasionally emetics. Subsequent to 1860 our treatment has been greatly modified, being less active and heroic,

The Use and the Neglect of Bloodletting — Arsenic in the Massachusetts Legislature — Medical Notes

The Use and the Neglect of Bloodletting — Arsenic in the Massachusetts Legislature — Medical Notes

A Return to Blood-Letting

A Return to Blood-Letting

Blood-Letting as a Remedy in Acute Scarlatina Dropsy

Blood-Letting as a Remedy in Acute Scarlatina Dropsy

Types of Fever and Blood-Letting

Types of Fever and Blood-Letting

Types of Fever and Blood-Letting

Types of Fever and Blood-Letting

Types of Fever and Blood-Letting

Types of Fever and Blood-Letting

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease

Gulstonian Lectures on the Uses of Blood-Letting in Disease