Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: blood-letting

  • Syndrome de Lasthénie de Ferjol

    Krishna G. Badami Christchurch, New Zealand   Figure 1. Une Histoire sans nom by Jules Amedee Barbey d’Aurevilly. Source Several years ago we saw a young woman who had an iron deficiency anemia, caused not by blood loss from menstruation (a common cause of iron deficiency anemia in females), but by repeatedly drawing her own blood by venipuncture…

  • Medicinal leeches in art and literature

    Martin Duke Mystic, Connecticut, United States   Figure 1. Woman applying a leech to her forearm. A large jar containing leeches is next to her. Belgium woodcut by Guillaume van den Bossche, 1639: National Library of Medicine Unique ID: 2315020R. For more than two thousand years, the extraordinary blood-sucking abilities of the medicinal leech (Hirudo…