WEBVTT - Bedside Manners 2: Bleed ‘em Dry 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:08.039 It was Halloween night when he decided to strike, which, 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.959 as I'm sure you'll agree, made for the perfect backdrop 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.800 for a bloody crime. But before I get ahead of 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.320 myself here, let me assure you that there was no 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:18.799 one hurt in the making of this new story. But 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.720 as the old adage goes, if it bleeds, it leads, 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.520 and this was certainly true from the robbery at the 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.120 Spokane Blood Bank. Now, at the time, blood bank robberies 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.080 weren't actually unheard of. They often had cash on hand 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.400 and very minimal security. The papers reported that on the 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.840 nine of October thirty one, nineteen fifty seven, a man 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.240 stepped through the Spokane Blood Banks doorway and approached Billy 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.040 Evelyn Miller, the only medical technician on duty. He saw her, 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.839 and she saw him. The man then calmly produced a pistol. 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.400 This wasn't a typical bank robbery, though. He wasn't there 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:54.880 after some quick cash. No, he was there to find 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.280 something far more valuable to him, human blood. In a 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.680 steady voice, he asked for five units of typo negative 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.240 and four sets of transfusion equipment. Based on the words 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:07.960 he used, Billy Evelyn thought that he must have had 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.319 a higher degree of medical understanding than your average run 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.840 of the mill thief. He was also polite and, in 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.960 her words, very calm and sweet, telling her, I won't 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.760 hurt you, my dear, just don't be frightened. Do what 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.720 I tell you. And although he was brandishing a gun, 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.520 he was careful not to aim it at Billy Evelyn, 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.560 so she obliged handing the items over. He packed his 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.440 bag full of blood and tubes and needles and asked 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.759 her not to watch as he left, and to wait 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.360 five minutes before calling the police. She complied, and he 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.920 quietly made his smooth escape. What drove the man to 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.560 rob the blood bank would remain a mystery. Six detectives 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.880 were assigned to the case, but they turned up nothing. 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.960 The police speculated that the robber could have needed the 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.559 blood for something that occurred outside the law, a gunshot wound, 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.840 or perhaps in abortion. They noted the typo negative blood 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.280 is often characterized as a universal donor, meaning that it 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.960 can be used in all cases, and is often deployed 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.960 in the direst of situations in which a perfect match 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.480 may take longer to find the value of blood is 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.320 not to be understated. Globally and in a metaphorical sense, 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.280 it represents life itself, the sticky force that keeps us 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.600 all on this earth. Blood is an important component in 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.760 our world religions and foundational tales of civilizations. It's been 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.800 used in rituals across the world as offerings to the 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.760 gods and appeasements to forces beyond our understanding. It's found 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:37.200 its way from our arteries into larger than life symbolism 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.359 that we live with every day, and the English language 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.840 is ripe with common phrases that invoke the idea of blood. 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.639 These blood born idioms illustrate some of our most intense 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.440 human experiences. For example, something terrifying might make your blood kurdle. 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.200 To have blood on your hands means that you've done 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.760 something irrevocably harmful. To be after blood means that you 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.240 might stop at nothing to get what you want. And 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.440 these are just a few. The list is seemingly endless. 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.360 We can't understand who we are as humankind without first 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.600 understanding more about the substance that flows through our veins 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.600 and keeps us living. We need to wrap our minds 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:19.480 around how it's been understood and misunderstood across time and place. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:25.520 And what happens when that blood is spilled. I'm Aaron Manky, 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:36.640 and welcome to bedside Manners. Close your eyes and come 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.680 with me. Picture this. You're sitting in a room. It's musty, 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.280 but bright and full of conversation and the occasional moan. 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.080 Beside you. A man is working near someone's head with 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.880 a pair of scissors. You hear the sharp shearing sound 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.880 of metal on metal as he works. Fine hairs catch 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.120 the lights as they fluttered to the ground. Nearby, another 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:58.560 man is bent over and peering into the gaping mouth 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.760 of a wincing woman. You can smell, even from some 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.720 feet away, that her insides have gone rancid. A shrill 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.400 cry escapes her throat as the metal implement scrapes deeper. 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.840 Looking toward the windows, you spy bowls lined up like 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.880 neat and tidy soldiers, all arranged by size. They're filled 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.800 with a liquid that seems to swallow the sun. Then 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.200 the smell of iron hits you, and you realize that 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.039 those bowls are filled with blood. The scene might have 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.520 the ingredients of a torture chamber, but all of the 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.640 people are there, quite willingly still sitting. You see that 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.360 your hand is stretched out and clutching onto a pole. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.159 The pole has a dual purpose that helps you keep 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.760 your arms straight and serves as an object to grasp tightly, 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.240 all to make what's about to happen easier. A man 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.360 in an apron approaches you in his hands, he holds 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.960 a small, flat silver box with a hinged top. He 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.039 sets it on the table, then wraps a piece of 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.440 cloth around your arm a tourniquet. The veins in your 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.320 arms start to bulge. The man then opens the box 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.440 he set down, pulls out an instrument, and unfolds it. 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.839 They resembles something like a pocket knife, a white handle 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.799 and a short, double edged metal blade. The practitioner easily 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.720 positions the blade at just the right angle he wants. 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.760 He's done this many times before. But before he makes 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.440 any cuts, he places an ornate pewter bowl beneath your arm, 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.679 and then he slices into your bulging vein. Blood runs 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.480 down your forearm. It feels warm as it begins to 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.480 drip into the bowl in clips and plops. As you 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.760 and the man your barber surgeon watch, your head feels light, 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.440 the room fades, and finally you slump over because you 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.760 have passed out. When you awake, the barber surgeon is 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.839 smiling at you with satisfaction, knowing that he has done 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.200 his job perfectly. You have a bandage on your arm 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.880 and the bleeding has ceased. You'd come to him after 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.680 all because you were ill, and now, with the excess 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.880 blood removed and your humors restored, you are on the 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:01.000 road toward healing. Blood letting, you see, was fundamental to 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.360 caring for the human body. For over two thousand years 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:07.200 throughout history, it was practiced in some form by almost 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.400 all cultures and societies. Though it seems like a total 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.520 counterintuitive practice, blood is our life force, after all, For 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.680 a long time the practice was considered to be cutting edge, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.880 and yes, that pun was intentional. For a large part 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.680 of history, quality and quantity of blood were thought to 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.080 govern the quality and quantity of a person's years. The 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.279 practice of phlebotomy, the letting of blood, is thought to 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.479 have originated in ancient Egypt, with the first evidence of 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.400 the practice appearing around fift b C. It's believed that 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.720 the earliest proponents of therapeutic blood letting took their cues 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.479 from spontaneous forms of blood letting, such as menstruation and 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.640 nose bleeds. It was with thanks to the ancient physician Hippocrates, though, 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.080 that this specific healing modality gained a lot of momentum 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.880 over two thousand, three hundred years ago. Hippocrates hypothesized that 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:02.520 illnesses stemmed from natural mother than supernatural causes. He proposed 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.320 that healing was a matter of proper bodily maintenance and 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.719 not from tributes to the gods. He adapted his ideas 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.920 on some pre scientific thought that originated before his time, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.080 and after some percolating, he came up with his theory 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.200 of the four humors. Hippocrates believe that nature is represented 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.320 in four elements earth, air, water, and fire. It made 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.320 sense to him then that humans also might be comprised 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.320 of four corresponding liquids called humors, and he decided that 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.680 these were blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Each 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.680 humor was ascribed to a certain organ and related to 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.400 one of four certain personality types. Illness was attributed to 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.960 humoral imbalance, too much of one thing and not enough 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.440 of another. In order to get yourself back in balance, 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.520 a doctor would be prescribing any number of things blood letting, purging, 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.920 diarresus and fasting. Of course, there were folks who completely 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.480 disagreed with Hippocrates, but his ideas would be built upon 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:04.040 and gain wider acceptance long after his time. The physician 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.560 Galen inherited these ideas. He was born in Turkey in 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.960 one d and twenty years later he took to the 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.040 road to study with some of the most pre eminent 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.280 medical teachers of the time. He settled permanently in Rome 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.560 in the early one sixties, stirring up business with public 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.320 demonstrations and lectures. By this time he had become wholly 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:28.080 fixated on blood, becoming phlebotomy's most prolific proponent. That said, 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.600 he knew it wasn't something to be taken lightly. Cutting 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.079 a person was something to be done with much precision 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.080 and care. He deemed blood letting to be an essential 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.360 remedy to all that ailed folks, and as a safeguard 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.520 against what might afflict them in times to come. Blood, 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.280 Galen thought, was the root of all sickness. Sometimes you 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.720 had bad blood, and sometimes you might have too much 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.559 of it. This, according to him, could be diagnosed from 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:56.240 external observations. One just had to look for a ruddy complexion. Uh, 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.960 sluggishness or maybe a rapid pulse. He and his contempt 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.160 braries became quick to prescribing blood letting as a remedy 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.360 for just about everything. Galen would go on to become 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.280 one of the most prolific authors in Western antiquity, his 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.080 total writing output exceeding two million words. He wrote on 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.920 a variety of topics, but he's best remembered for his 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.280 outsized impact on medicine, and as the Empire expanded, so 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.920 too did the reach of Galen's medical theories. Blood Letting, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.040 it seems, was here to stay. So next time you 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.160 reach for an aspirin or have to run out for 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:32.880 more cold medicine, just think this could all be so 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.880 much worse, because for a very long time it was. 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.160 King Charles the Second of England was having a rough 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.600 go of it in the winter of his feet ached, 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.800 and despite tending to them, they continued to be a nuisance. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.400 So he decided to cancel his daily walk and go 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.880 for a carriage ride instead. As you'll see, it would 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.120 be his last. The king retired to bed early that night, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.400 but his sleep would be anything but RESTful. By morning, 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.640 he awoke moaning and barely able to speak, His aids 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.200 hustled in alarm. He was soon struck by a seizure. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.559 Doctors from the Royal College of Physicians quickly arrived at 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.560 his bedside and deployed an arsenal of treatments. They took 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.320 out their enemies, the purgatives, the laxatives. They ground up 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.120 sugar and pearls for a tonic. They put the irons 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.040 in the fire literally, and of course they brought out 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.920 their lancets. This was top tier medical technology. There would 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.920 be nothing but the best for their king. With these 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.240 tools in hand, the metal of the king was put 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.960 to the test. The old adage what doesn't kill you 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.720 makes you stronger, it seems like it was particularly applicable here. 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:47.160 He drank boiled spirits from a human skull, hoping that 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:50.960 its former vitality would reinvigorate him. He was scalded from 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.040 head to toe by white hot irons and bled from 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:56.840 his jugular vein, but he knew the end was near. 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.440 The king apologized to his doctors for having such an 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.800 unconscionable time, dying after six days, King Charles the Second 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.360 slipped from this life. In total, he had about twenty 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.080 four ounces of blood taken over the course of his treatment. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.560 What we have since learned is that a human body 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.600 can replace sixteen ounces of the stuff within two days. This, though, 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.320 is assuming that the body is healthy. It seems that 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.080 Charles probably needed all the blood he could get, and 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.480 it's likely that his body couldn't keep up with the 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:28.600 reproduction of it, and due to the number of physical ailments, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.520 it seems that his body simply gave out. He was 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:36.040 beyond repair. In the centuries following Galen, blood letting continued 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.520 to be widely considered as a cure all and was 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:41.160 incredibly common. For a while, the practice was in the 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.760 hands of the clergy, which actually made a lot of sense. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.640 They were an educated class and were often tasked with 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.600 caring for the sick. But after Pope Alexander the Third 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.079 banned his holy men and women from the practice in 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:56.160 eleven sixty three, avoid appeared and the barber surgeons would 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.160 fill that role. Once upon a time, the local barber 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.640 surgeon was a stop shop for various kinds of bodily maintenance, haircutting, 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.720 teeth pulling, and of course, blood letting. Their job was 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.320 to tend to things considered to be dirty and deeply personal. 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.880 These practitioners were tradesmen rather than high society physician types. 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.400 They worked with bodies, something that was considered to be uncouth, 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.559 whereas physicians looked but didn't touch. In England, it was 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.680 common to see candy cane striped poles outside of barber 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.120 surgeon shops, with the red representing blood and the white 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:32.560 representing the tourniquet. Bowls of blood were even set in 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.920 the windows as advertising. Remember that the next time you 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.400 go and see the same pole outside your own barber shop. 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.360 Over the years, their tools of the trade evolved. Animal teeth, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:46.240 sharpened wood and shells gave way to spring lancets and 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:50.640 razor sharp instruments known as scarificators. But as theories around 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.000 the practice grew more complex, the tools became more precise. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.720 One of the most popular aids and bleeding were small, soft, 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.800 and sentient leeches. They were placed on the problem area, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.400 both on the outside and on the inside of the body. 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.240 If you have never heard of a leeching chair and 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.880 wonder why it might have a hole in the seat, well, 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:14.000 consider yourself lucky. The popularity of leeches peaked in France 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.199 in the eighteen thirties, when it was thought that about 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.000 thirty five million of them were used per year. The 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.079 most popular variety, the Herudo Medicinalis, was capable of ingesting 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.840 ten times its own weight of blood at each feeding. 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.440 They were housed in ornate jars and apothecary windows, which 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.120 were filled with comfortable beds of pebbles and moss for 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.640 the leeches to retire upon between gigs. In fact, for 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:37.880 a very long time they were believed to have gone 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:41.800 extinct thanks to this high demand. They're actually still around today, 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.480 but they are a protected species, and of course they've 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.280 had to go back to finding their own meals, but 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.800 not before taking the blame for the deaths of some 0:13:50.000 --> 0:14:00.000 very famous historical figures. George Washington had really taken to retirement. 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.800 He found a lot of satisfaction in watching the seasons 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.280 change at his estates at Mount Vernon, Virginia. His time 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.080 and attention had shifted away from public service, and now 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.640 he spent his hours tending to his land. Thursday, December 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:16.760 twelfth of sev started off with light snow, then hail, 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.280 and then rain. Conditions weren't kind, to say the least. Nevertheless, 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.920 Washington hopped on his horse to supervise his plantation activities. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.880 It was a long, cold, wet day in the saddle. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.720 When he returned home that evening, he was chilled to 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.760 his core. Guests said just to arrive for dinner. A 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:38.120 friend suggested that he changed into something warm and dry. Washington, however, 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.200 was a stickler for punctuality and chose not to do so. 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.840 He chose to take a seat at the meal, still freezing. 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.040 The next morning, Washington woke up with a sore throat 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.320 and later complained of a cough and a running nose. Still, 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.240 there were chores to do outside and three fresh inches 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.320 of snow to contend with, So despite the frigid air 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.480 and his sore throat, Washington headed out to mark trees 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.360 that he wanted to have cut down. His voice grew 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:05.520 more hoarse throughout the day, and by the time he 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.960 returned to read his evening newspapers allowed he could barely manage. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.640 He chose to retire for the nights, but he wouldn't 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.920 sleep for long. He woke up around two am, clutching 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.280 his chest, short of breath, and with a raging fire 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.200 in his throat. Even so, he wouldn't allow Martha to 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.720 get up and call for help. She was recovering from 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:25.960 a cold herself, and he didn't want her to have 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.080 to leave the warm comforts of their bed. At daybreak, 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.359 Caroline Brandham, one of the people enslaved by the Washington's, 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.800 came to light a fire in the bedroom. It was 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:39.080 then that Martha sent for washington Secretary Tobias Lear. He 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.960 arrived quickly and was startled to find the former president 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.840 in such bad shape. He sent for George Rawlins, and 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.240 overseer at Mount Vernon, as well as Washington's personal doctor 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.520 of over forty years, Dr James Craik. At around seven 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.000 thirty a m. While waiting for Dr Craik to arrive, Rawlins, 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.720 at the request of Washington, and despite Martha's vocal opposition, 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.800 bled the former president, taking about fourteen ounces of blood 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.280 Over the course of the morning. Panic set in. Another 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.160 doctor was called, who also opted to bleed an additional 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.320 eighteen ounces of blood. A third blood letting occurred at 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.960 eleven am, drawing out another eighteen ounces, and then they 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:21.880 sent for yet another doctor. Washington's condition unsurprisingly continued to deteriorate. 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.240 A fourth position was called for, who conducted one final 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.040 thirty two ounce bleeding. The doctors tried giving him tease, 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.640 They tried having him gargle various tonics. They tried administering enemas, 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.760 they blistered him with Spanish fly, They even induced vomiting. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.320 As you can imagine, it was all a pretty gruesome sight. 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.440 And if you were wondering if Washington knew that he 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:49.240 was dying, the answer unequivocally yes. At four thirty PM, 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.760 he called for his wills. He gave directions on how 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.720 to settle his books and accounts. He thanked his doctors 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.000 and asked to be decently buried, and specified that his 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.680 body not be put into his vault any less than 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.040 three days after he had died, for fear that he 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.600 might mistakenly be buried alive but die he did just 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.680 a few hours later, at the age of sixty seven. Washington, though, 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.760 wasn't the only high profile person to possibly be bled 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.320 to death. There were others too. It's thought that Wolfgang Amadeus, 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:21.520 Mozart and Lord Byron both succumbed with the aid of bleeding. Conversely, 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:23.679 there was the case of Marie Antoinette, in which it 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.800 was suggested that blood letting may have actually saved her life. 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.960 The four A time you see. In seventeen seventy eight, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.040 Marie was pregnant with her first child, Marie Theress. When 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.000 it came time for the then Queen of France to 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.720 give birth in December of that year, Marie's bedroom in 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:40.679 the Palace of Versailles was filled with onlookers, eager to 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.600 see the birth of the queen's first child, who everyone 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.040 hoped would be a male heir to the crown. At 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.760 that time, it was customed to have public births in 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.920 the French court. People wanted to witness the heir's corporeal debut, 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.440 so the Queen's room was packed with gawkers, so many, 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.520 in fact, that they not only hindered the work of 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.120 the attending doctors, but they also made the room itself loud, suffocating, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.800 and unbearably hot. People stood on cabinets, climbed tapestries, and 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.359 crowded all around just to get a glimpse. King Louis 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.359 the sixteenth ordered that the tapestry screens around the Queen's 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.400 bed be secured with strong cords so that they wouldn't 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.280 collapse on her. Due to the rush of people clamoring 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.760 to get a glimpse of the birth, The scene was 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.880 chaotic and overwhelming. This was all amplified when Marie did 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.640 eventually give birth, not to a son, which she had 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.520 so deeply hoped for, but to a daughter. All of 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.119 this was too much for Marie, it seems, and she 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.159 passed out as if she hadn't already lost enough blood 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.360 for the day. The doctors sprung into action. They sliced 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.480 an incision in the Queen's foot. Sure enough, she opened 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.639 her eyes and stirred once more. Blood letting in this 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.400 case seems to have helped revive her. Or it could 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.560 also be that the pain of the incision had brought 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.159 her back around, or that the crowd was dispersed and 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:56.719 the king frantically opened all the windows to let in 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.320 some fresh air. But this, of course, would not be 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.880 the last time that Marie Antoinette would be bled. Fourteen 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.479 years later, a much more shall we say, comprehensive session 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.200 of blood letting would occur at the gallows when Marie 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.240 was executed after a trial found her guilty of high treason. 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:15.000 Blood Letting may or may not have saved her before, 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.000 but the second instance certainly did what it was designed 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.640 to do, and it brought her life to an end. 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.240 You might be wondering to yourself, with all of these 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.119 cases of blood letting potentially having gone wrong, why did 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:34.720 so many think it was right. The advent of germ 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.520 theory in the eighteen sixties dealt a hard blow to 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.080 humorl theory. Even still, it's been documented that blood letting 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:43.600 didn't reach its peak in Europe until around the same time. 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.399 Books on the topic continued to be published into the 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.800 next century. For poor old George Washington, it's unknown to 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.600 this day exactly what killed him. Almost immediately after his death, 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.280 doctors began debating what had dealt America's first president the 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.920 final blow. Some suggested an abscess in his mouth, while 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.840 others believed it was a blockage in his throat. Some 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.760 even attributed his death to pneumonia and strep. Whatever the 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.320 true reason, they removed about eighty ounces of blood, or 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.600 around forty of the amount of blood in the average adult, 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.199 all in twelve hours, and this surely could not have 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.800 helped the man. The practice of blood letting progressively dwindled 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.000 in the nineteenth century in the West, and in retrospect 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.120 seems barbaric to our modern minds. It has not vanished altogether, though, 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.840 and It's still used to treat certain conditions related to 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.680 bone marrow and metabolism disorders. But on a more basic, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:40.119 fundamental level, think about your annual physical They take your heights, 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.919 your weight, your blood pressure, and they also bleed you, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.760 drawing your blood through needles and into tubes. Science has 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:48.760 gotten a lot better, of course. The blood is no 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.480 longer drawn for its own therapeutic sake, but for the 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.480 purpose of running various tests on it. We now look 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.400 at taking blood as a means to an end, rather 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.920 than the therapy itself, a first nest sary step toward 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:04.240 a more precise diagnosis and treatment. And I'm sure you'd 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.359 be happy to know that the use of medical leeches 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:11.040 is making a comeback in modern medicine, particularly in microsurgery. 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.000 It appears that the leeches release various biological substances that 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:19.760 can help reduce venous congestion and prevent tissue necrosis. If 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.560 you'll pardon the pun. It's pretty common for folks today 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.120 to think the health care practitioners of your well sucked, 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.000 But as their leeches seem to have taught us, it 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:38.960 turns out they were onto something. Blood and guts. That's 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.679 a term we've heard often as a general description of 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.560 what's inside our bodies, and hopefully today you've gained new 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.520 insights into the long and winding journey that blood has 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:50.760 traveled throughout history. But as you might expect for something 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:53.640 so ubiquitous, there are plenty of stories of blood out 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.560 there waiting to be retold, and if you stick around 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.440 through this brief sponsor break, you'll get to hear one 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:07.840 more of them. M hmm. Right in the mummified body 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.800 of an eleventh century Italian saint was discovered in a 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:14.200 church in Luca, Italy. Saint Venus of Armenia had died 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:16.480 in a hospital annexed to the church in the year 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:20.159 ten fifty. During a complete study of the body, scientists 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.080 located two significant wounds on a skull, thought to be 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.280 produced by a serrated blade and a blunt instrument. They 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:30.000 noticed precise scarifications around the wound, which appeared to indicate 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.639 that while he was alive, it had been cleaned and cauterized. 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:35.960 Researchers believe that this is the first physical evidence of 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:40.560 a case of post surgical medieval cauterization. Therapeutic treatments based 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:44.720