ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the practice in relation to what were called inflammatory symptoms. This explanation, while relatively superficial, will be sufficient to answer some basic questions about how bloodletting was used and why it was deemed to be effective. Bloodletting, local, general, or a combination of both, was central to a broader therapeutic strategy called the antiphlogistic regimen. General bloodletting or venesection was relatively straightforward. It was simply a matter of opening a vein or an artery and allowing blood to flow. Leeches were deemed especially useful in removing blood from areas of the body that were too constricted to allow for the application of mechanical suction. In his publications, Pierre-Charles-Alexandre Louis considered three inflammatory diseases: pneumonia, erysipelas of the face, and angina tonsillaris. His results are similar for each disease, and the chapter focuses on his remarks about pneumonia. Louis reported having examined seventy-seven cases in which pneumonia had been treated by bloodletting.
