The seventeenth century print called “Bleeding” can tell us more then what type
of medical practices were being used four hundred years ago. Where the print can be
found, and why it was created can give us an in-depth look into what was know at that
period in our history known as the Enlightenment. The medical practice of bleeding, or
blood-letting, dates back over a thousand years, although by the late eighteenth century
the practice was outdated and only used in the rural country side, it was deemed
important enough in the seventeenth century to be included in the Encyclopedia. Over
two hundred collaborators, lead by Denis Diderot, brought together the contents of the
Encyclopedia as a symbol of knowledge during the enlightenment period. It is difficult to
give an exact date when it began or ended but the Enlightenment was a period of
questioning, a period when the notion of free circulation of thought became powerful
enough to destroy monarchies, and pave the way for social change.
The print is of a woman, we assume of high status by her clothing, receiving the
medical practice of blood-letting. In the seventeenth century blood-letting was usually
administered by a physician, but local healers and women have also been recorded to
perform the procedure. Particularly for women it was thought to help cure hysteria or to
be used on patients in a state of melancholy. Hysteria was typically seen in women
because it was thought to be caused by a disorder in the womb. Many women who would
suffer from hysteria and convulsions were believed to have an imbalance of the blood and
could expect the traditional methods of treatment which always included bleeding1. The
print shows us that blood is being drawn from the arm, as this was standard practice for
blood-letting blood. The arm was normally used first, if more was needed form the foot,
1
A.W., Sloan. English Medicine In The Seventeenth Century. (Durham, 1996) 68.
1
and in the most desperate cases, the neck2. Women especially saw blood-letting as a cure
for chronic headaches. This practice may seem drastic by today’s standards and often it
was deadly cure for headaches but that was the medical knowledge of the seventeenth
century.
Due to the limited medical knowledge of the time, most patients saw the same
forms of treatment, bleeding, purging, and enemas used for most aliments, and of course
they were not enjoyed. The treatments often left the patient incapacitated, weak, and left
feeling emptied from both ends. If done incorrectly bleeding could cause pregnant
women to give birth prematurely. Women with gynecological problems would refuse to
be examined by the hands of a male physician. Badly trained surgeons were a serious
problem of the times. It was suggested that many Physicians killed as many as they
saved, and many educated people would rather take advice or remedy from an old
women, then an inexperienced under-educated physician3. But realistically medical
education four hundred years ago was not as extensive as it is today, and even the most
well trained doctor rarely benefited the patient. Many people were scared of physicians
due to how many lives they lost, an article in the sixteen hundreds concluded that it
would have be better if medicine never existed in this world4.
The reason why medicine was so important to the great minds of the
Enlightenment was the thought that you could link health and happiness. The new
fundamentals of philosophy were to be based on the progress in medicine5. The
Enlightenment was a period concerned with thought; how man perceived his place in the
2
Ann La Berge and Mordechai Feingold., ed. French Medical Culture In the Nineteenth Century. (Atlanta,
1994) 97.
3
Matthew, Ramsey. Professional And Popular Medicine In France, 1770-1830. (New York, 1988) 65.
4
Ibid., 65.
5
Lindsay Wilson. Women And Medicine In The French Enlightenment. (Baltimore, 1993) 2.
2
world, in terms of religion, history, and purpose. Men like Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau,
and Locke all gathered their thoughts in the Encyclopedia, also known as the Rational
Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts, with the Preliminary Discourse. First
published in 1751, it was a source of knowledge of all types, the knowledge of medicine
is just one such example. The purpose of the Encyclopedia was ethical in nature, to
improve mankind through education, and to raise standards of conduct, in order to create
a happier, more productive, society6.
During the Enlightenment anything that could be used to draw public attention to
the social inequalities, governmental inadequacies, or abuses of power could advance the
movement. The encyclopedists reflected on most major aspects of society the politics, the
church, education, trade, aesthetics, and morality, in order to eliminate prejudice,
persecution. Although the encyclopedists united to produce this compilation of
knowledge after it was created many of them went in different directions using different
methods some. Descartes had a particular interest in medicine because he thought that
there was a very close connection between the mind and body, and that a healthy body
would eventually lead to an enlightened mind7. Living conditions in this period were
terrible, and most people had short life spans, due to constant epidemics and malnutrition.
The Crown was blamed for much of this hardship, and the encyclopedists would use this
to their advantage in contesting the old methods of thinking.
In the Encyclopedia, there was a clashing of old thought and new, as old
practices such as bleeding were beginning to be questioned and new continued to be
used. The encyclopedists tried to inform the masses of the new medical knowledge of
6
Denis Diderot. The Encyclopedia Selections. Edited and Translated by Stephen J. Gendzier (New York,
1967) xiv.
7
Lindsay Wilson. Women And Medicine In The French Enlightenment. 86.
3
anatomy and system circulation, although their cutting-edge knowledge at the time
probably saved as many lives as the old bleeding and purging methods. The
Encyclopedia questioned these old medical practices, by showing images such as the
bleeding print, and as time went on they saw the decline of bleeding, which had been the
sovereign remedy for inflammatory diseases, and the used of which dated back to the age
of antiquity.
Bleeding came about in the second century of the Common Era, when Galen of
Pergamon settled in Rome. Galen studied the doctrine of the four humours and believed
that most illnesses were caused by an imbalance of the blood and that someone could be
cured by taking out the tainted blood and the correcting the balance8. This process was
usually accompanied by purging, and a prescription of herbal medicines such as opium,
tobacco or tree bark9. Over hundreds of years this became the most valuable of medical
practices. Bleeding was a practice used by everyone from Monarchs to the farmers of the
rural countryside.
Although seen as being without any scientific merit in the urban areas by the late
18th century, bleeding continued to be used in the countryside. Throughout the history of
mankind, it has always been difficult to establish new methods or thoughts to traditional
minds, and so one can readily appreciate that change for farmers had always been risky.
For people that could barely provide for their own sustenance, new thoughts, religion,
and practices have always been adapted into their lives very slowly. Even educated
medical practitioners who lived and practiced medicine in the countryside had a difficult
time changing, as said by one doctor in 1872 “a person becomes content with an
8
9
A.W., Sloan. English Medicine In The Seventeenth Century. 39.
Ibid., 172.
4
acquired, undisputed situation. He has few formulas that are always the same, and at the
end of ten or twelve years, he has added nothing to his scientific baggage”10. The classic
saying being, “what’s good enough for Grandpa is good enough for me”, clashed with
thoughts of reform as preached by the encyclopedists.
The Encyclopedia proved that many medical practices such as blood-letting were
outdated and highly dangerous, but that was very difficult, if not impossible to convey to
countrymen. Obviously literacy rates were lower in the countryside and therefore these
new thoughts were slower to be accepted but, there were also other reasons. The peasant
communities still had local healers who used methods such as bleeding. There are
reports of folk-healers treating diseases whose symptoms included lassitude, fatigue and
sluggishness, by repeatedly making incisions on one’s palate with a bad razor. This
process was to be repeated if the patient did not see results, and obviously often was11.
Procedures were often done in accordance with the phases of the moon. This was a time
of witchcraft and warlocks. It was a time when superstition and the supernatural were the
basis for peasant belief and thought. Given this environment, the battle to free minds was
not easily won. It was no wonder that the encyclopedists had a difficult time introducing
new thoughts. The encyclopedists saw more forms of opposition then simply the
ignorance found in the laymen of the countryside.
The Church and the State were highly opposed to the encyclopedists, whose
thoughts commonly went against their own beliefs. Time and time again men like Kepler,
Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton had used scientific reasoning to prove that the church
was fallible. The church attempted to silence these men, but the encyclopedists had
10
11
Jack D. Ellis. The Physician-Legislators Of France.(New York, 1990) 66.
Matthew, Ramsey. Professional And Popular Medicine In France, 1770-1830. 262.
5
developed codes to mask their view. Words like Adore and Irreligious would have
secreted meanings like, to praise reason, or asked for the separation of religion and
ethics12. Luckily for the collaborators the Scholastics were to busy in the own quarrel’s to
effectively bring down the encyclopedists. Criticisms against the state and its bureaucracy
also saw repercussions, and the highly controversial work lead to many of the
encyclopedists being imprisoned. Diderot was sent to jail in for three months in 1749,
though his vision of free circulation of ideas and thought in the Encyclopedia, his hopes
and dreams slowly materialized13.
With later versions, there were more subscribers and social action began to
appear, and there were even assassination attempts on the King. Ultimately, the largest
success which came from the liberal ideas in Encyclopedia and the Period of
Enlightenment was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in 1789, and the
beginning of the French Revolution, causing the end of the oppression and abuse of
authority by the Monarchy14. The encyclopedists didn’t necessarily want to start a
revolution but they knew change was needed. The purpose of the Encyclopedie was to
establish civil rights and liberties which excluded no one. Which today we take these
rights for granted. The Enlightenment is one of the few periods in history which the
active participants actually named themselves, and by historians hundreds of years after
the fact. The enlighteners had a clear purpose, as can be explained by Kant when he said,
“Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of immaturity.
12
Denis Diderot. The Encyclopedia Selections. xviii.
Ibid., xxiv.
14
Ibid., xxi.
13
6
Immaturity is the incapacity of using one’s understanding without the guiding direction
of another”15.
That is exactly what the encyclopedists did they guided the masses into a state of
liberation, liberation from the church, the state, and themselves, and helped people accept
new ideas and discredited old ones, such as blood-letting. They risked their own
credibility for the good of bettering mankind, focusing on all aspects of life, one of the
most important of which was the sciences namely medicine. The seventeenth century
print “Bleeding” from the Encyclopedia can tell us much more then four hundred year old
medical practices it, it tells us the power of Enlightenment. The power of the
Enlightenment was strong enough to end Monarchies and to give men basic rights that
last even until today, all throughout Western civilization.
Word Count: 2006
15
Ibid., xxi.
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