rvices. For analyzing selected objects and
answering our requests promptly we thank Dr. Robert Organ, chief; Barbara
Miller, conservation director; and Martha Goodway, metallurgist, of the
Conservation Analytical Laboratory.

To those who helped us to solve specific problems we extend appreciation
to Dr. Arthur Nunes; Dr. Uta C. Merzbach, curator of mathematics, NMHT
(especially for finding the poem by Dr. Snodgrass); and Silvio Bedini,
deputy director, NMHT, whose enthusiasm and unmatched ability for studying
objects has sustained us throughout the period of preparation.

While it is traditional to add a reminder that various unnamed people
contributed to a publication, it is imperative to state here that numerous
people are essential to the collection, conservation, preservation, and
exhibition of museum objects. Without them no collection would survive and
be made available to those who come to study, admire or just enjoy these
objects. We hope this catalog brings out some of the joy as well as the
difficulties of maintaining a national historical medical collection.

BLOODLETTING INSTRUMENTS
IN THE
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

AUDREY DAVIS and TOBY APPEL[A]

Introduction

Bloodletting, the removal of blood from the body, has been practiced in
some form by almost all societies and cultures. At various times,
bloodletting was considered part of the medical treatment for nearly every
ailment known to man. It was also performed as punishment or as a form of
worship to a Superior Power or Being. It still retains therapeutic value
today, although only for an extremely limited range of conditions. In
early attempts to extract blood from the body, the skin was penetrated in
various places with a sharp instrument made of stone, wood, metal,
bristle, or any other rigid material. When it was recognized that a vein
visible on the surface of the skin as a blue-green stripe contained blood,
the vein was incised directly. To facilitate "breathing a vein" and to
provide greater safety, more refined and sharper instruments were devised.
As theories supporting bloodletting grew more complex, so too did the
instruments.

Spontaneous forms of bleeding, including nosebleed, menstruation, and
those instances produced by a blow to any part of the body, apparently
inspired the earliest human bloodletters. The Egyptians claimed that the
hippopotamus rubbed its leg against a sharp reed until it ble