On the Curative Effects of the Abstraction of Blood - With Rules for Employing Both Local and General Blood-Letting in the Treatment of Diseases #229959

This quality Of coagulation in the blood, which, as I have endeavoured to show, is so powerful an agent in arresting hemorrhage as well as in accomplishing other restorative processes, has in some persons been found wanting, and hence bleedings, even from very small vessels, have not been capable of being stopped, and the hemorrhage has in some instances even proved fatal. As few such cases are recorded in medical works, it may be expedient, on this occasion, to bring together all the materials I have been able to collect on this interesting subject, and mention those examples of this peculiarity of the blood which have come more immediately within my own knowledge. A gentleman found on several occasions great difficulty, and it Often required many hours, before he could stop the bleeding occasioned even by superficial scratches, such as he sometimes met with in shaving. At length he accidentally received a slight wound on one of his fingers, and, every effort to arrest the hemorrhage failing, he expired.