Therapeutic bloodletting in Ireland from the medieval period to modern times

Abstract:Bloodletting by venesection or by the application of leeches was commonly engaged in by medical practitioners until the late nineteenth century. Based on the classical ideas of Hippocrates and Galen that humoral imbalance was the cause of disease, bleeding was used to treat sickness and maintain health. While the paradigm of humoral medicine was challenged by iatrochemistry in the early modern period, bleeding remained popular into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bloodletting was practised widely in Ireland from at least the thirteenth century and possibly earlier; both the Gaelic and Anglo-Norman communities resorted to bleeding. This paper explores the origins of therapeutic bleeding in Ireland and examines the experiences of bloodletting among the Irish in the context of evolving ideas in medicine from the medieval period until it was abandoned in the first half of the twentieth century.This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License. Open Access funding provided by IReL.