Aulus Cornelius Celsus was a Roman scholar and encyclopedist of the 1st century CE, best known as the author of De Medicina, one of the most important sources of medical knowledge in antiquity. In his work, he described various methods of treating general illnesses, including recommending bloodletting (sanguis mittendus) as a preventive measure in the event of the body becoming overloaded with excess “fluids”.
In ancient medicine, especially in the Greco-Roman tradition, human health was based on the so-called theory of four fluids (humors) – humoral theory. According to it, the body contained four basic fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm, each of which was responsible for different physical and mental characteristics. It was believed that the balance between these fluids determined health, and their excess or deficiency led to disease.
Celsus, like Hippocrates and Galen, accepted this theory as the basis for treatment. That is why he recommended, among other things, bloodletting, the use of laxatives or emetics to restore the proper proportions of fluids in the body. Treatment therefore consisted not in combating a specific pathogen, but in restoring internal balance.
In ancient times, bloodletting was a procedure performed mechanically, by cutting a vein, usually in the arm or the bend of the elbow.
