Debra Kontowtt
PhD studentA History of Bloodletting: An Analysis of the Longevity of Bloodletting and its continued use during the Long Nineteenth Century
The focus of my PhD will be to establish why bloodletting survived as a therapeutic practice far beyond the initial life of humoral theory and its basis in antiquity. It will explore how bloodletting not only endured, but often thrived, even though other ideas about the body began to displace humoral theory. It will examine how medical practitioners produced a strong intellectual and physiological justification for its continued usage alongside those practitioners who questioned its perceived effectiveness. Although the main body of the project will be situated within the long nineteenth century, predominantly 1760 to 1900, it will also concisely assess the widespread and continued usage of bloodletting from the classical period through medieval and renaissance medicine.