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 a
variety of 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 Arzt und die Heilkunst_, Leipzig, 1900; photo
courtesy of NLM).