In the foregoing cases it is to be understood that the
operations have been performed solely from the inability to
secure surgical assistance or from the incapacity to endure the
pain any longer. These operations were not the self-mutilations
of maniacs, but were performed by rational persons, driven to
desperation by pain.
Possibly the most remarkable instances of extensive loss of
blood, with recoveries, are to be found in the older records of
venesection. The chronicles of excessive bleeding in the olden
days are well known to everybody. Perhaps no similar practice was
so universally indulged in. Both in sickness and in health,
depletion was indicated, and it is no exaggeration to say that
about the hospital rooms at times the floors were covered with
blood. The reckless way in which venesection was resorted to, led
to its disuse, until to-day it has so vanished from medical
practice that even its benefits are overlooked, and depletion is
brought about in some other manner. Turning to the older writers,
we find Burton describing a patient from whom he took 122 ounces
of blood in four days. Dover speaks of the removal of 111 and 190
ounces; Galen, of six pounds; and Haen, of 114 ounces.
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