"Three special months, September, April, May,
There are in which 'tis good to ope a vein:
In these three months the moon bears greatest sway;
Then old or young that store of blood contain.
September, April, May, have daies apiece
That bleeding do forbid, _and eating geese_."
BLEEDING IN 1872.--EARLIEST BLOOD-LETTERS.--A ROYAL SURGEON.--A
DRAWING JOKE.--THE PRETTY COQUETTE.--TINKERS AS BLEEDERS.--WHOLESALE
BUTCHERY.--THE BARBERS OF SOUTH AMERICA.--OUR FOREFATHERS BLEED.--A
FRENCH BUTCHER.--CUR?--ABERNETHY OPPOSES BLOOD-LETTING.--THE
MISFORTUNES OF A BARBER-SURGEON (THREE SCENES FROM DOUGLAS JERROLD)
JOB PIPPINS AND THE WAGONER; JOB AND THE HIGHWAYMEN; JOB NAKED AND JOB
DRESSED.
When, in the year of our Lord 1872, a full half dozen educated physicians
meet around the dying bed of a _Rich_ man in this city to quarrel over
him, and in the absence of one branch of the faction, the other assume
charge of the patient, whom they _bleed_ and leave _in articulo mortis_,
it is not too late to take up the subject of venesection.
Podalirius is supposed to have been the first man who employed
blood-letting, since whose time the lancet is said to have slain more than
the sword; and, notwithstanding the many lives that have been sacrificed
to this bloody absurdity, it is still practised by those who claim to have
all science and wisdom for its sanction.
It is useless to bring one learned man's opinion against it, because
another's can be found equally wise to offset him: the great public has
condemned the practice. It early fell into disrepute with the more
refined, notwithstanding some kings took to bleeding as naturally as
butchers.