ST. CLOUD - It's odd to think about now, but there once was a time when a practice called "blood letting" was common for doctors. An interesting artifact you can find at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud is a blood letting device that was used in the late 1700's.

Some of the medical practices thought that one of the ideas for helping someone to heal was to let blood because in the human body at the time some people had thought that there were four types of fluids, so you had to get rid of some of those fluids if they were sick to make them better.

Head curator Adam Smith says a man by the name of Dr. John Hedlund used the device into the early 1800's. It was donated to the Stearns History Museum in 1938.

Each month WJON news features a different interesting artifact you can find at the Stearns History Museum.

The museum is opening a new exhibit called "Healthyville" next Friday, May 27th. It will run until September.

Blood letter at the Stearns History Museum. Photo by WJON.com's Alex Svejkovsky
Blood letter at the Stearns History Museum. Photo by WJON.com's Alex Svejkovsky
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