Phlebonics

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Apr 21, 2010, at 7:25 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 4/21/2010 12:32 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>> Isn't there also an auxiliary branch of medicine known as
>> "phlebonics," where they draw your blood or something? This is not to
>> be confused with that infamous bit of quacksalvery known as
>> "fleabonics." Everybody knows that can't cancer be cured with any
>> fleas, despite what those local-cable ads claim.
>
> Are you thinking of phlebotonics?  The science of studying the
> processes of blood coursing through meat-eating plants?  :-)

on a more serious note, he might have been thinking of phlebotomy
(etymologically 'vein'-cutting'), the drawing of blood for clinical
purposes -- by a phlebotomist.

arnold

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