A treatise on the medicinal leech; including its medical and natural history, with a description of its anatomical structure; also remarks upon the diseases, preservation and management of leeches / [James Rawlins Johnson].

  • Johnson, James Rawlins, active 1792-1827.
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the medicinal leech; including its medical and natural history, with a description of its anatomical structure; also remarks upon the diseases, preservation and management of leeches / [James Rawlins Johnson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    159/166 (page 145)
    sucking with the same avidity as when first applied. Although the Leech appears at the moment to suffer from this practice but trifling inconvenience, yet it afterwards becomes very languid: I would therefore only propose its adoption, at a time when, as before noticed, their scarcity might render such a measure expedient. To make a Leech disgorge, the most common practice is, that of strewing the mu¬ riate of soda, or common salt, over its body. In a few seconds the blood is rejected, the Leech assumes a coiled form, and loses its activity and vigour; and we seldom find it again fit for use, until the expiration of four or five days.* As the salt frequently blisters * Upon this subject, Horn says, rather quaintly, “ Those persons do not consider that blood is the most favourite and salutary nourishment of this extraordinary creature [the Leech]) and I would ask such inconsiderate persons, how they would feel themselves if, immediately after eating a hearty dinner, any person was to give them a violent emetic?” U