In Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, Vincent Lam holds in delicate and skillful tension fl humour, investigations of both common and extraordinary moral dilemmas, and a sometimes shockingly realistic and matter-of-fact portrait of today's medical profession.
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures is the first acquisition of the new publishing house that will also be releasing Vincent's first novel, Cholon, Near Forgotten.
The jury selects Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures for the shortlist of five books in contention for the 2007 Toronto Book Awards.
Bloodletting (or blood-letting, in modern medicine referred to as phlebotomy) was a popular medical practice from antiquity up to the late 19th century, involving the withdrawal of often considerable quantities of blood from a patient in the hopeful belief that this would cure or prevent a great many illnesses and diseases.
In England, the efficacy of bloodletting was hotly debated, declining throughout the 18th century, and briefly revived for treating tropical fevers in the 19th century.
Bloodletting was especially popular in the young United States of America, where Benjamin Rush (a signatory of the Declaration of Independence) saw the state of the arteries as the key to disease, recommending levels of blood-letting that were high, even for the time.
Bloodletting was a preventative and restorative treatment frequently administered during the Middle Ages.
Bloodletting in Cistercian abbeys, as in other religious houses, was a routine part of life.
There was to be no bloodletting at harvest, when everyone was needed to help in the fields, or at feasts when the entire community was expected to participate in all the services.
On a technical level, Bloodletting is far superior to the short, especially thanks to the slick editing by Tempe Entertainment honcho J.R. Bookwalter, who also executive produced the film.
Bloodletting may be charmingly tongue-in-cheek in tone, but its implications are truly disturbing.
All that aside, Bloodletting can simply be appreciated as the tragicomic story of two psychos in love and their messy, troubled relationship.
The practice of bloodletting seemed logical when the foundation of all medical treatment was based on the four body humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and fl bile.
The art of bloodletting was flourishing well before Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C. By the middle ages, both surgeons and barbers were specializing in this bloody practice.
Bloodletting Antiques by Douglas Arbittier, M.D. features fast-loading thumbnails of devices, leach bowls and cupping sets.
Bloodletting was used to treat everything from fever and madness to anemia and debility.
Perhaps the biggest benefit was to the physician and family, who felt that at least they were doing something, and if the patient died anyway, it was meant to be.
Much detail is known about the history of bloodletting but an in depth study is beyond the scope of this summary.
