研究所、轉學考(插大)、學士後-英文題庫下載題庫

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Until a century ago, bloodletting was used to treat many ailments. Dating back to before the time of Christ, the treatment involved letting a type of worm, called a leech, such blood from the patient.

 People believed that there were liquids called humors in the body and that these determined a person’s personality and health. Bloodletting, they thought, restored a balance to these humors. 

 At the time, little was known of the workings of the human body, but people did know that the same liquid, blood, flowed throughout everyone’s body. They knew it was a vital substance, for loss of any great amount of it meant certain death. Thus, they concluded that all diseases were carried in the bloodstream, and that if the body was relieved of bad blood, health would return. Bloodletting, however, came to be used as a cure-all. Women were bled to keep them from blushing, while members of the clergy were bled to prevent them from thinking sinful and worldly thoughts.

 From the eleventh to the eighteenth centuries, barbers were the people to go to if you needed to be bled. This custom explains the significance of the traditional barber’s pole: the white stripes stand for bandages and the red stripes for blood.