venesection

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Cutting open or exposing a vein; a phlebotomy.

   “She had paſſed through the milder Remedies frequently without ſucceſs: upon which account I deſigned Mercurialls; and beginning with Venæſection, afterwards purged her with decoct. epithymi, as it is preſcribed in the method of Cure.”

   “His teachings on plethora and venesection remained influential until the nineteenth century.”