dark ages,
middle ages the period of history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance
medical specialty,
medicine the learned profession that is mastered by graduate training in a medical school and that is devoted to preventing or alleviating or curing diseases and injuries; "he studied medicine at Harvard"
bloodletting -
indiscriminate slaughter; "a bloodbath took place when the leaders of the plot surrendered"; "ten days after the bloodletting Hitler gave the action its name"; "the valley is no stranger to bloodshed and murder"; "a huge prison battue was ordered"
bloodletting -
The archaic practice of treating illness by removing some blood, believed to be tainted, from the stricken person.
bloodletting -
By extension, the diminishment of any resource with the hope that this will lead to a positive effect.
bloodletting -
A circumstance such as a battle where a large amount of blood is likely to be spilled through violence.
Wikipedia
Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of often considerable quantities of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. It was the most common medical practice performed by doctors from antiquity up to the late 19th century, a time span of almost 2,000 years. The practice has been abandoned for all except a few very specific conditions.
