Leaching

“ All leeches are very extensile and can contract the body to a plump, pear-shaped form, or extend it to a long and worm-like shape. They frequently progress after the fashion of a “looper” caterpillar, attaching themselves alternately by the anterior and the posterior sucker. Others swim with eel-like curves through the water, while one land-leech, at any rate, moves in a gliding way like a land Planarian, and leaves, also like the Planarian, a slimy trail behind it. Leeches are usually olive green to brown in colour, darker patches and spots being scattered over a paler ground. ”

“ There is nothing like being used to a thing, and when you remember that many people derive their whole support from the leeches they gather, you will not wonder that they do not fear a few leech bites. I do not suppose they lose much blood; no doubt the gatherers pick them up pretty quickly and put them into their collecting cases; besides the chief flow of blood from a leech-bite occurs after the leech has been removed; the flow is encouraged by the application of warm fomentations, but the cold water of a pool would stop the flow of blood in the case of the man's legs. ”

“ They experience the greatest torture if they happen to swallow, while drinking, a horseleech, an animal which people are beginning, I find, to call almost universally a “blood-sucker.” The leech fastens upon the wind-pipe, and produces intolerable pain.
The skin of the back is extremely hard, that of the belly is softer. They are not covered with any kind of bristles, nor does the slender tail furnish them with any protection from the annoyance of flies; for vast as these animals are, they suffer greatly from them. Their skin is reticulated, and invites these insects by the odor it exhales. ”

“ The coffee planters, who live amongst these pests, are obliged, in order to exclude them, to envelope their legs in "leech gaiters" made of closely woven cloth. The natives smear their bodies with oil, tobacco ashes, or lemon juice; [2] the latter serving not only to stop the flow of blood, but to expedite the healing of the wounds. In moving, the land leeches have the power of planting one extremity on the earth and raising the other perpendicularly to watch for their victim. ”

“ In the East, where many of our Territorial regiments are now stationed, we come across another species of leech even more injurious to mankind than Limnatis nilotica. This Asiatic leech is known as Haemadipsa zeylanica, and is one of a considerable number of leeches which have left the water, their natural habitat, and have taken to live on land.
From India and Ceylon, throughout Burma, Cochin China, Formosa to Japan, the Philippines, and the Sunda Island, this terrible, and at certain elevations ubiquitous, pest is spread. It lives upon damp and moist earth. ”

“ They are, in these and other districts, so plentiful in the autumn that almost every mule and almost every horse the tourist comes across is bleeding from its mouth or from its nose, for this species of leech is by no means only a human parasite. ”

“ The progression of the leech is performed by undulating movements and the prehensile action of the suckers—head and tail. The eyes are ten in number, near the mouth and at the top of the head. The mouth is furnished with numerous tri-radiate teeth, but in some leeches they are not sharp, as in the “medicinal” variety. It is known that both sexes are represented in every leech, but they are not self-reproductive.
The earth-worm, so familiar to all, has been lately raised into importance. It lives in clay, and bores its way through the ground. ”

“ They are extremely rapid in their movements, and their touch is so delicate that you do not feel their presence until they have nearly gorged themselves with blood. Your legs, unless they are well protected with putties, are most liable to their attacks, but you find leeches on all parts of your body, and I have found them in my eyes and in my mouth and once just captured one as it was preparing to enter one of my nostrils. ”

“ If the animals are quite hungry, the slight shadow of the hand, imperceptible though it be to our eyes, will be instantly recognized by them, and a lively scene will follow, every Leech rising up, supported on its posterior sucker, and swinging at full length back and forth, from side to side, round and round, as if intensely eager to reach something. ”

“ As there is a prejudice among the country people that Leeches never breed well till they have tasted blood, it is said that they drive their horses and cows into the water inhabited by the Leeches, and consequently that the Leech districts are remarkable for their wretched-looking horses and cattle. Leeches must be five years old before they are fit for medical purposes; and they are caught in shallow water in spring by people going in with naked feet and ankles, to which the Leeches adhere, when they are picked off and put in baskets provided for the purpose. ”

“ Every one has heard of the mania for leeches which has lately prevailed in France. Like all other manias, this did not long confine itself to the capital or its environs, but rapidly spread to every province and, every department; and, like the blood, which, impelled by the heart, finds its way to the most minute corners and remote extremities of the human frame, the doctrine of universal leechification gradually insinuated itself to the ultimate ends of his Most Christian Majesty's dominions. ”

“ Leeches have many enemies:— water-rats, voles, the larvae of the Dytiscus beetle, the larvae of Hydrophylus, the Nepa or water-scorpion, the larvae of the dragonfly, and the adult Dytiscus—all feed upon them. Many birds also eat leeches; and it is recorded that at one artificial leech-farm, where there were 20,000 leeches, they were all eaten up in twenty-four hours by an invasion of ducks. Frogs and newts also devour them, and they are not above eating their own brothers. Aulostoma will devour its own species as readily as it will an earthworm. ”

“ Cursing the stubborn folds, swaying dizzily on the slippery footropes, shouting for hold and gasket, we fought the struggling wind-possessed monster, and again the leach was passed along the yard. A turn of the gasket would have held it, but even the leading hands at the bunt were as weak and breathless as ourselves. The squall caught at an open lug, and again the sail bellied out, thrashing fiendishly over the yard. ”

“ On one end of its worm-like body is a large sucker by which the animal fastens itself to the ground, and at the other end is a smaller sucker, in the middle of which is a chitinous mouth that makes a triangular puncture. As items of materia medica, leeches were described in dispensatories, or compilations of medicaments, and sold by apothecaries, both to physicians and directly to patients. The species most commonly used for bleeding was Hirudo medicinalis, indigenous to the streams and swamps of Central and Northern Europe, and known in commerce as the Swedish or German leech. ”

“ We passed our time while the mules were at bait in visiting the springs. There is a cold creek 200 yards below the station, and close by the hut a warm rivulet, said to contain leeches. The American hirudo, however, has a serious defect in a leech—it will not bite; the faculty, therefore, are little addicted to hirudination; country doctors rarely keep the villainous bloodsuckers, and only the wealthy can afford the pernicious luxury, which, imported from Spain, costs $12 per dozen, somewhat the same price as oysters at Nijni Novorod. ”

“ Authoritative verse on the subject:—The non-venomous leeches swim about in sweet scented waters, live on non-poisonous weeds, lie on the leaves of flowering water plants instead of on the dank and oozy beds of pools, and suck blood from the affected part of a human organism without causing any discomfort. ”

“ Thus leeched in a large stream, a horse will often faint before he can reach the opposite shore, and he then becomes a prey to the gar fish; if the stream is but small, and the animal is not exhausted, he will run madly to the shore and roll to get rid of his terrible blood-sucker, which, however, will adhere to him, till one or the other of them dies from exhaustion, or from repletion. In crossing the Eastern Texas bayous, I used always to descend from my horse to look if the leeches had stuck ”

“ When very thirsty they draw blood, even through one’s stockings, their bite resembling the sharp pricking of a leech; and wafers left upon a table entirely disappear under their attacks in a very short time. In the evening, if disturbed on the curtains, they rise in hundreds, making a rushing noise like pheasants when a well-stocked cover is beaten. ”

“ Leeches are numerous in swamps and stagnant pools, and one tiny species, found in dense forests only, has the disagreeable habit of leaping from the trees upon passers-by, and at once beginning its blood-imbibing habit. ”

“ The great leech is still there in the deep hole, because when people look down they see something alive moving about on the bottom, and although they can not distinguish its shape on account of the ripples on the water, yet they know it is the leech. Some say there is an underground waterway across to Nottely river, not far above the mouth, where the river bends over toward Murphy, and sometimes the leech goes over there and makes the water boil as it used to at the rock ledge. ”

“ Dr. R. J. Drummond, who has had experience of these land-leeches in Ceylon, has told me that the bite is often septic and that it often leads to a serious abscess which is long in healing. He recommends pushing a match, which has been dipped into carbolic acid, well home into the sinus made by the leech’s head.
When winter approaches the leeches die down with extraordinary rapidity, and the species ‘carry on’ over the cold-weather period in the form of eggs laid in cocoons on the ground, under leaves, or other débris. ”

“ On descrying their prey they advance rapidly by semicircular strides, fixing one end firmly and arching the other forwards, till by successive advances they can lay hold of the traveller's foot, when they disengage themselves from the ground and ascend his dress in search of an aperture to enter. In these encounters the individuals in the rear of a party of travellers in the jungle invariably fare worst, as the leeches, once warned of their approach, congregate with singular celerity. ”

“ Now the name is familiar to everybody, because, in the first place it pertains to a monstrous leech which inhabits tropical waters; fastens on to whatever has sentient life, and never lets go until the last drop of blood is sucked out, and the victim topples into the arms of death. ”

“ Though there are no dangerous animals, there are many pests, the worst being the leeches, of which there are three kinds, two that lurk in the grass and bushes, the other being aquatic—the horse-leech. ”

“ The old man came down and had a look at it and estimated it to be about three feet below the water line.
"If so," said he, "we can stop the leak ourselves in any smooth harbor where we can get her head up and trim her stern down. There is no fear of its working loose as long as the wood is new and sound round it. The leak is not a serious one, to be sure, but it is enough to annoy us all the time and make considerable work, and a kind of work, too, that no sailor is [170] fond of. ”

“ In the live animal the body can be greatly elongated and narrowed or much shortened and broadened. It is composed of many segments (not as many as there are cross-lines however; each segment is transversely annulated) , and bears at each end on the ventral surface a sucker, the one at the posterior end being the larger. These suckers enable the leech to cling firmly to other animals. The mouth is at the front end of the body on the ventral surface and is provided with sharp jaws. Leeches live mostly on the blood of other animals which they suck from the body. ”

“ They rarely rise from the mud or sand; they hide behind stones, their heads buried in the sand, but their tails in sight. Every now and then they change positions, swimming swiftly over the bottom to another spot. Their voracity is very great, and they often disappoint the angler by taking his bait. The cottage people are said to eat them.
The ‘stwun loach’—stone loach, as the lads call it—hides also behind and under stones, and may be caught by hand. ”

“ This particular leech is swallowed by man, by domestic cattle, and doubtlessly by wild animals, with their drinking-water. Amongst the medical writers of the Eastern world in classical times who mention leeches there was always, as there was amongst the authors of the Talmud, a great and haunting fear of leeches being swallowed, and these writers mostly wrote from the area where Limnatis nilotica still abounds. ”

“ Leeches lay eggs, which are covered with a kind of membrane, which serves to protect them when they are deposited in the clay and holes in the sides of ponds. They appear to live on the eggs of fish or frogs, but eagerly attach themselves to the legs of human beings, horses, or cows, whenever they have an opportunity. ”

“ The successful stocking of a pond with leeches is a work requiring considerable care; the animal has many enemies, against which it must be protected, and will not thrive except under specially favorable conditions. The mother-leeches, when planted in the pond, lay their cocoons (which contain the eggs) as in nature, and the young brood is hatched out at the proper time; but this brood, besides protection, requires its natural food, sickens if it does not find it, and can not be fed artificially. The young worms will not thrive in artificial ponds ”

“ It is requisite that the Leeches be taken in clear running Waters, and that they be long and slender, having a little Head, the Back green, with yellow Streaks, and the Belly somewhat reddish. Before they are apply'd, it is also expedient to let 'em purge during some Days in fair Water, fast half a Day in a Box without Water. Afterward the Part being rubb'd or chaf'd with warm Water, Milk, or the Blood of some Fowl, the Opening of the Box is to be set to the Part, or the Leeches themselves laid upon a Cloth; for they will not fasten when taken up with the Fingers. ”