Allmanach auff das 1581 jar ... / Durch Petrum Slovacium gestellet auff den Meridian der kayserlichen Stadt Breslaw.

An ill man being bled by a surgeon. Coloured etching after J. Gillray, 1804, after J. Sneyd.

A Nun (Sister of Charity) bloodletting a seated patient. Line engraving.

A lady fainting after bloodletting. Oil painting after Eglon Hendrick van der Neer.

A woman being bled by one man while another holds her arm, two dogs lap up her blood; representing France in the grip of Louis XIV and Cardinal Richelieu, while the financiers drain her resources. Engraving.

A surgeon letting blood from a woman's arm. Oil painting.

Three leeches in the role of physicians attend a grasshopper in the role of the patient and propose diet and bloodletting. Coloured lithograph after J.J. Grandville, ca. 1832.

A physician and a surgeon attending to a woman patient. Oil painting by Matthijs Naiveu.

Esbatal : Esbatal has been shown to be preferred by the patients themselves as an anti-hypertensive therapy ...

A surgeon and his black assistant letting blood from a lady's arm. Oil painting by an English painter, ca. 1780.

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In the early nineteenth century there were several rival medical systems, including Brunonianism, the system of Broussais, phrenology and homoeopathy, in addition to variations on traditional western medicine. Brunonianism, the theory of John Brown (1735-1788), regarded most illnesses as due to a deficit of stimulation, requiring treatment with medicines based on opium or alcohol. In France, François Joseph Victor Broussais (1772-1838) proposed a theory of irritability which was to be controlled by purging and especially bloodletting. Brown acquired a European reputation, especially after his death. Broussais tried to ridicule Brown and his followers in many of his verbose writings. The short-lived success of their competing systems illustrates the fatal attractiveness of over-simple theories. This drawing, probably by a French or German hand, shows a battle between the rival partisans of Brown (on the left) and Broussais (on the right): they are identified by military standards (flags) inscribed "Brown" (left) and "Broussai<s>" (right)

1 drawing : pen and ink ; image 35.4 x 45.2 cm

A fierce battle between the supporters of John Brown (Bruno), in favour of treatment with stimulants, and those of F.J.V. Broussais, in favour of bloodletting. Pen drawing.

Bloodletting points and moxa points: three drawings.

1 drawing : brush and ink ; sheet 18 x 8.5 cm

Bloodletting points and moxa points. Ink drawing, Tibet.

Medical Heritage Library

On gout ; its history, its causes, and its cure. / By William Gairdner.

In the centre sits a distressed woman wearing a bonnet marked "Rep: Bat" (Batavian republic): her breasts are exposed, her feet are placed in a tub of water, and her right arm is being phlebotomised by a surgeon who has placed his lancet on her knee. The blood spouts from the inside of her elbow as if an artery had been pierced instead of a vein. Left, an officer holding a clyster under his arm; behind, a man with chequered trousers (hence a zany, companion to a quack doctor) holding up a staff of Aesculapius and a medicine bottle marked "Tinct. Univer."; right, a corpulent physician taking the woman's pulse by embracing her left arm while holding something in his mouth (pipe? pomander? top of cane?); behind, a man crossing his index finger and thumb (the gesture used by figures in paintings by Jan Steen to imply that a woman attended by a physician is sex-starved); right foreground, a man who has in his pocket a book entitled "Traité sur la Reconnaissance": he is identified in the British Museum catalogue as "'Citoyen L' who owes everything to the ex-Stadholder". On the ground is a prescription "R<ecipe> # PM: Merc<ury>"
One of the figures is a portrait of a surgeon called Löörs (Eschmann p. 69): possibly he is the "Citoyen L" mentioned above

1 print : etching, printed in sanguine ; platemark 27.3 x 22 cm

The countries of Europe representing physicians and surgeons trying to regenerate a woman personifying the Dutch republic. Etching attributed to James Gillray, 1796, after David Hess.

vii, xv, 177 pages, 4 unnumbered pages ; 22 cm

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Phlebotomy

Images

Works

A fierce battle between the supporters of John Brown (Bruno), in favour of treatment with stimulants, and those of F.J.V. Broussais, in favour of bloodletting. Pen drawing.

Bloodletting points and moxa points. Ink drawing, Tibet.

On gout ; its history, its causes, and its cure. / By William Gairdner.

The countries of Europe representing physicians and surgeons trying to regenerate a woman personifying the Dutch republic. Etching attributed to James Gillray, 1796, after David Hess.

Reminiscences of a medical life : with cases and practical illustrations / By Jonathan Toogood.

Today’s opening times

Wellcome uses cookies.

Phlebotomy

Images

Works

A fierce battle between the supporters of John Brown (Bruno), in favour of treatment with stimulants, and those of F.J.V. Broussais, in favour of bloodletting. Pen drawing.

Bloodletting points and moxa points. Ink drawing, Tibet.

On gout ; its history, its causes, and its cure. / By William Gairdner.

The countries of Europe representing physicians and surgeons trying to regenerate a woman personifying the Dutch republic. Etching attributed to James Gillray, 1796, after David Hess.

Reminiscences of a medical life : with cases and practical illustrations / By Jonathan Toogood.

Wellcome Collection

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