It was difficult to gauge how much blood was being taken, and blood often continued to flow after the leech was removed. Yet bleeding with leeches was “troublesome and uncertain,” according to William Buchan’s widely read domestic-medicine manual. Belief in the merits of bloodletting grew stronger in the 18th and 19th centuries as newly emerging theories of disease expanded the practice’s application to nearly every ailment. Well into the 19th century European physicians relied on these texts for guidance in balancing the body’s four humors.īloodletting was thought to help balance the humors and was a common treatment for a variety of illnesses it was even used as a general preventive. Use of the animals reached Europe in the Middle Ages through translation of medical texts from the ancient Greek and early Islamic worlds. Thousands of years ago physicians began exploiting the vampiric nature of these delicate relatives of the earthworm, transforming them into an important medical device that became part of a long-standing tradition of bloodletting. The relationship between people and the medicinal leech, however, has a much deeper history. From the late-18th century through the 19th century a craze for leeching gripped Europe and North America and led to the collection, trade, and use of millions of leeches each year. The bloodsuckers were placed “inside the nostrils, on the inside of the lower lip, on the chest, and on the side, sometimes by four at a time.” Such childhood experiences were not unusual. ![]() submitted a letter to the popular British serial Notes and Queries about his childhood memories of being “leeched” on a regular basis. The mother heaved a sigh of relief help had arrived in the form of a leech. Worried by these symptoms, she sent for the local apothecary, who arrived a short time later with a jar containing some brightly colored, slimy creatures. His mother found him suffering from fever, wracked with body aches, and fatigued. One day in 1855 a boy known to history only as W. C. B.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |