PHLEBOTOMY 75 



broadened so as to also include the abstraction of blood from 

 the incision. .The word "phlebotomy" is therefore synony- 

 mous in veterinary surgery with "blood-letting" from the 

 jugular vein. The word is never used to designate the inten- 

 tional incision- of a vein during a surgical operation. 



HISTORY. — Phlebotomy deserves to-be described as the 

 oldest surgical operation. It was a therapeutical expedient 

 of the most ancient healer. The oldest description of efforts 

 to cure the ills of man and animals mention the operation, 

 and elaborate upon its efficacy. It was performed alike on 

 the rich, the poor, the young, the old, the thin, the obese, the 

 man, the beast, for every deviation from health, whether a 

 trivial indisposition or a grave malady, and its popularity as 

 a curative measure did not wane until recent years. About 

 the middle of the nineteenth century it began gradually to 

 sink into disfavor. During the last half of the nineteenth 

 century it ceased to be so generally practiced ; now its prac- 

 tice is as rare as it was once universal. The better knowledge 

 of pathology claimed by the present generation, the better 

 understanding of the relations between physiological and 

 pathological states, and probably, also, mere caprice, have 

 relegated the operation to oblivion. The new physician, 

 surgeon and veterinarian know nothing of blood-letting, and 

 care less. The operation today is condemned, stigmatized, 

 ignored, ridiculed everywhere. It has no adherents, "except 

 a few straggling remnants of the so-called old school, — pas- 

 sing entities. 



INDICATIONS. — Let us see whether this manifest 

 prejudice of the modern therapist against phlebotomy is justi- 

 fied, or whether it is only a mere prevailing fancy or fashion. 



It is now pretty generally conceded that during the many 

 centuries that blood-letting was universally practiced, many 

 patients, afflicted with debilitating fevers and asthenic or- 

 ganic inflammations, were bled to death by their physicians. 

 That Washington fell a victim to this practice will become 

 an American tradition. Among veterinarians it is known 

 that animals likewise frequently were victims of this pro- 

 cedure, but in spite of these presents, the operation has had 

 its victories, otherwise an established popularity, lasting cen- 

 turies, would have been impossible. The persistency of its 

 popularity was due partly to the fact that it was frequently 

 very beneficial, that it seldom ever produced any perceptible 

 harm, and that better antiphlogistic measures were not 

 known. Depressing antiphlogistic drugs supplanted it, and 

 although these still find some defenders, they too, are surely 



