Bloodletting, as the name indicates, was the practice of letting blood out of the patient in order to cure them. Quote from wikipedia:

“George Washington was treated in this manner following a horseback riding accident: almost 4 pounds (1.7 litres) of blood was withdrawn, contributing to his death by throat infection in 1799.”

In the context of today’s medicine, it’s difficult to imagine draining the blood out of someone to cure them for falling off their horse. So my question is what’s our bloodletting? What are we doing today which tomorrow’s generation will look back on in disbelief?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 7:48 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.