The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural venesections
(medicine) Cutting open or exposing a vein; phlebotomy. quotations examples
She had paſſed through the milder Remedies frequently without ſucceſs: upon which account I deſigned Mercurialls; and beginning with Venæſection, afterwards purged her with decoct. epithymi, as it is preſcribed in the method of Cure.
1676, Richard Wiseman, “Of Lepra, or Elephantiasis”, in Several Chirurgicall Treatises, London: Printed by E. Flesher and J[ohn] Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took […], 1st book (A Treatise of Tumours), page 139
His teachings on plethora and venesection remained influential until the nineteenth century.
1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 74