Bleeding, or phlebotomy (Middle High German lâze, lâzen or bluot lâzen, Greek phlebotomia, medium Latin venaesectio) is a well-known since ancient times and was widely used in humans and animals until the 19th century Term for the method of obtaining blood from the bloodstream of vertebrates.
In the case of bloodletting for therapeutic purposes, the (adult) human being is taken approximately between 50 and 1000 ml, today usually a maximum of 500 ml of blood. It has been proven that bloodletting has only a positive effect on very few clinical pictures, so that it has largely disappeared from everyday medical practice. Bloodletting, like cupping, is one of the oldest forms of medical treatment. It was known before the time of Hippocrates (about 460-370 BC) and was considered as the use of emetics and laxatives (such as enema) until the 19th century as one of the most important, although not uncontroversial, standard medical forms of therapy for the elimination of harmful or too much existing humors on the basis of the ancient Seftleehre (humoral pathology).
Colloquially, the blood donation is sometimes referred to as bloodletting. Financial loss or loss of soldiers and material can also be meant in a figurative sense.