Bloodletting was a regular form of medical treatment for ancient Greeks, with its benefits debated by scholars such as Hippocrates and Galen. Bloodletting in Central America. Bloodletting or autosacrifice was a cultural trait of most of the societies in Mesoamerica, beginning with the Olmec perhaps as early as 1200 AD. 1  This type of religious sacrifice involved a person using a sharp instrument such as an agave spine or shark's tooth to pierce a fleshy part of his own body.
A mixture formed when one substance dissolves in another is called a solution. One example is salt water. In a solution, the component substances cannot be distin-guished from each other and they remain evenly distrib-uted throughout; that is, the mixture is homogeneous (ho-mo-JE-ne-us). The dissolving substance, which in the body is water, is the solvent. The substance dis- solved, salt in the case of salt water, is the solute . An aqueous (A-kwe-us) solution is one in which water is the solvent. Aqueous solutions of glucose, salts, or both of these together are used for intravenous fluid treat- ments.
Written By: Deliquescence, the process by which a substance absorbs moisture from the atmosphere until it dissolves in the absorbed water and forms a solution. Deliquescence occurs when the vapour pressure of the solution that is formed is less than the partial pressure of water vapour in the air. All soluble salts will deliquesce if the air is sufficiently humid. A substance that absorbs moisture from the air but not necessarily to the point of dissolution is called hygroscopic. The effectiveness of calcined calcium chloride in settling road dust is a result of its deliquescence.