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Read more about the article OBJECT HISTORY: Cupping Kit

Tools used in a cupping kit, from left to right: scarificator, cup, syringe. Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

OBJECT HISTORY: Cupping Kit

Cupping therapy is a medical treatment in which local suction is created on the skin in an effort to increase blood flow to promote healing or restore humoral health balance. It was practiced as early as the Hippocratics and persisted in high medical popularity until the late nineteenth century. This particular kit belonged to Dr. James T. Reeve a physician…

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June 9, 2018

Broad History / Pre-1787 / Related Stories / 1787-1848 / 1848-1877 / Science & Medicine / Cupping Kit

What is Cupping?

Until the late nineteenth century, cupping was widely used for the treatment of inflammation and deep-seated pain believed to be due to an imbalance of the humors. A physician or barber surgeon would begin cupping by selecting the appropriate cup based on the amount…

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May 3, 2018

The Decline of Humoral Theory

Cupping (as well as general bloodletting) declined in the late nineteenth century. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch’s experiments in pathology demonstrated the existence of foreign bodies and their role disease, called in to question humoral theory. 1 Dr. Ira Marks, in an address to the Wisconsin…

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May 3, 2018

Military History / Appleton / Education / Related Stories / 1848-1877 / Outagamie County / Politics & Government / Science & Medicine / Region 5 - Center East / Cupping Kit

Dr. James T. Reeve

The owner of this particular cupping kit was Dr. James T. Reeve. Dr. Reeve was born near Goshen, New York, on April 26, 1834. Despite losing his father at age five and his mother five days before graduating medical school, J.T Reeve received his…

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May 3, 2018

Humoral Medicine and Cupping

Humoral medicine began in Ancient Greece and continued in popularity until the late nineteenth century. Humoral theory was based on the belief that the body was composed of four humors/temperaments (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) and was influenced by the…

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May 3, 2018