CUPPING  . The operation of cupping is one of the methods that have been adopted by surgeons to draw

blood from an inflamed part in order to relieve the inflammation . The skin is washed and dried; a glass cup with a rounded edge is then firmly applied, after the air in it has been heated; the cooling of the air causes the formation of a partial vacuum, and the blood is thus drawn from the neighbouring parts to the skin under the cup . Either the blood is drawn from the patient's body through a number of small wounds which are made in the skin, with a special instrument, before the cup is applied; or the cup is simply applied to the unbroken skin and the blood drawn into the subcutaneous tissue within the circumference of the cup . The result of both methods is the same,—namely, a withdrawal of blood locally from the inflamed part . The former is called moist cupping, the latter dry cupping . This operation has naturally declined in vogue with the obsolescence of blood-letting as a remedy .