Bloodletting Tools

As late as the 19th century, physicians used a variety of tools to release blood from the bodies of sufferers. The examples featured on this page were used by James Haller of the 38th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. Haller was a doctor in Middleton, Ohio, before enlisting in 1861. His regiment participated in a number of battles, including Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, and Kennesaw Mountain. Haller was promoted to Assistant Surgeon of the regiment in 1863, a post which he held through the end of the war in 1865.

For centuries before the settlement of Kansas, almost anyone could practice medicine with little or no training. Even educated doctors had little information to help them diagnose and treat diseases. There were few good teaching institutions or laboratories, scarce books and supplies, and little information on how disease spread.

Medical treatment essentially was based on the concept of four "humors" in the body; blood, phlem, yellow bile, and black bile. It was believed that physical and mental distress resulted when these humors were out of balance. Phlebotomy was used to re-establish the balance through the release of 16 to 30 ounces of blood. The body then was rebuilt through tonics and restoratives.

Bloodletting was accomplished by means of a variety of tools. Lancets (pictured above) are surgical knives used to incise veins for the greatest yield of liquid. Cuts generally measured about 1/5 of an inch in length.

Haller's kit included the brass spring lancet with wooden case (at upper left in above photo). These tools were easy to use because they had spring-loaded blades that made consistent cuts, an improvement over hand-controlled lancets (in same photo, at lower right) whose cuts varied in length and depth depending on the skill of the physician.

Scarificators (pictured at right) appeared in the early 1700s. They also offer a standardized depth and length of cut. The lever on top of the brass box releases a set of blades that snap out of the slits on the base (see bottom, right). This model has twelve blades, the most common number, although some scarificators had up to 20 blades.

Cupping was another method of bleeding a patient. The glass cup (pictured below, left) was heated and placed on the skin. Its cooling created a vacuum, causing the skin to become red and swollen and signalling to the physician that the blood had risen to the surface of the skin. Then a lancet was used to release the "bad" blood from the body. Cups also were used after lancing to promote bleeding.

Generally, blood was collected until the patient began to feel faint. The blood was caught in a bowl, and when the right amount was observed, pressure was applied over the incision to stop the bleeding. Phlebotomy seemed to relieve fevers because patients who initially were flushed and restless became pale and quiet after loss of blood. Physicians today understand these effects are not beneficial, and that the body is stressed when it has to replenish a depleted blood supply as well as fight illness.

Phlebotomy was in general decline by the time Kansas achieved statehood in 1861, and essentially had disappeared by the early years of the 20th century. Bloodletting instruments are still pictured in an 1896 medical instruments catalog in the museum's library, though, leading one to believe that older patients must have had confidence in its healing qualities.

Relatives donated Haller's tools to the Kansas Museum of History in the 1960s. Other medical tools, including a Civil War amputation kit, are displayed in the museum's main gallery in Topeka.

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