“ was an adamant defender of bloodletting against those who doubted its efficacy. Susan Mattern - a historian based at the University of Georgia in Athens - emphasizes one such account in a paper in The Lancet: However, as some of Galen’s contemporaries observed, the famed physician could sometimes get carried away when administering this treatment.

The principle behind bloodletting is to remove some blood in a controlled way so that the patient does not end up bleeding profusely. In the second century before the common era, Galen - a famous Roman physician who also subscribed to the humoral theory - promoted arteriotomy, a bloodletting method, as a means of reestablishing the balance of the four humors and treating a variety of symptoms.Īccording to Galen, a bloodletting incision into the veins behind the ears could treat vertigo and headaches, and letting blood flow out through an incision in the temporal arteries - the veins found on the temples - could treat eye conditions.

This theory posited that there were four key humors, or liquids, in the human body and that imbalances in these humors were responsible for many physical and mental illnesses.Īccording to the most influential version of this theory, these humors were: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Hippocrates - an Ancient Greek physician who lived in the fifth century before the common era and was one of the most important figures in the history of medicine - practiced medicine according to the theory of the four humors, or “humoral theory.”

Medieval Bodies by Jack Hartnell