Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and TechnologyDavis, Audrey B.
History
Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology
Davis, Audrey B.
National Museum of History and Technology; Phlebotomy -- History; Phlebotomy -- Instruments -- Catalogs
[Illustration: FIGURE 17.--Venus and Adonis with marks showing where
Baunscheidt's _Lebenswecker_ should be applied. (From Carl Baunscheidt,
_Baunscheidtismus, by the Inventor of the New Curing Method_, Bonn,
1859(?). Photo courtesy of NLM.)]
Dry cupping stimulated much theoretical debate in the nineteenth century
as well as a number of physiological experiments.[157] Although physicians
generally agreed that dry cupping had curative value if employed properly,
they disagreed widely on when to employ the remedy, and on the manner in
which the remedy operated. Did application of cups affect only the surface
vessels, or could cupping affect the entire nervous system, and through
the nerves, the action of the secretory organs? Were the effects of dry
cupping of only a temporary nature, or were they permanent? An interesting
series of investigations in Europe and America sought to ascertain the
value of dry cupping in checking the absorption of poison. An American,
Dr. Casper Wistar Pennock, replying to investigations performed by Martin
Barry, an Edinburgh physician residing in Paris, carried out an impressive
series of physiological experiments in 1827, in which he administered
strychnine and arsenic under the skin of dogs and rabbits and then cupped
over the wounds. He concluded that while dry cupping prevented almost
certain death from the poisons, once the cups were removed, death would
ensue, unless the poisons were surgically removed.[158]
Interest in dry cupping led to attempts to apply the therapeutic effects
of the operation to larger areas of the body than could be accommodated by
a cup. In France, Victor-Theodore Junod (1809-1881) adapted cupping to
entire limbs. Shortly after receiving his degree in medicine in 1833,
Junod presented at the Academy of Sciences his apparatus, known thereafter
as Junod's boot. Junod believed that actual extraction of blood was a
dangerous remedy and that the benefits of bleeding might as easily be
obtained by his "derivative method," which withdrew blood from the general
circulation but allowed it to be returned at will. Junod's boot and
Junod's arm, which sold for as much as $25.00 apiece,[159] were
constructed of metal and secured against the limb by a silk, and later a
rubber, cap. To the boot was attached a flexible tube, stopcock, pump, and
if desired, a manometer for measuring the vacuum produced. In chronic
illnesses, Junod recommended that the boot be applied for an hour. So much
blood was withdrawn from the circulation by use of the apparatus that the
patient might easily faint. To explain how his boot worked, Junod invented
a theory that he called "hemospasia," meaning the drawing of blood.[160]
This was typical of a number of attempts to introduce sophisticated
terminology into discussions of traditional remedies. Junod's arm and boot
were widely available through American surgical supply companies. As late
as 1915, Heinrich Stern, previously mentioned as a latter-day proponent of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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