LEECHES.
The leech genera, Bdella, Hnmadipsa, San guisuga, belong to the family Hirudinidm of the class Annelidm, and contain the true medicinal leeches, which are procurable in all the stagnant waters of India. Saiiguisuga .tEgyptiaca is the leech of Proverbs xxx. 15. S. medieinalis, Savigity, the speckled leech, occurs also in China. Leeches are of both aquatic and terrestrial habits. Hirudo tagalla, also called H. Ceylonica, lives in the thickets and woods of the Philippine Islands, and also up to 11,000 feet above the sea in the Himalayas. Ilmmadipsa Ceylonica occurs in Ceylon, H. Boscii in the Archipelago. Hirudo sanguisorba is the paddy-field leech of Ceylon, and Ilmmopsis paludnm is the cattle leech of that island. There are said to be leeches one foot long in the province of Shantung in China. The leech zone of Malabar is from 1000 to 5000 feet above the sea. In the wet season travelling in the forests is very unpleasant. There are no leeches, mosquitoes, or peepsas in Tibet, and maggots or flies are never seen there. There are no bees or wasps in Dingehani or Tibet. The Planaria occurs near Madras. Leeches and their effects most have been known from the earliest times ; they were early employed by the Hindus and Arabs, and six kinds of useful and six of venomous leeches are mentioned by Susruta and Avicenna.
Dr. Carter, in a memorandum on the Leeches of Western India, mentions as the difference between the Matheran and common leech, that the common leech is about one inch in length, of an olive-green colour, has seven lines down its back, but no black spots; twelve eyes, arranged quadrilaterally, an uneven lip, with its centre notched, and is aquatic. The Matheran leech is about three-quarters of an inch long, of a light reddish-brown colour ; has a black line down its back, and is covered over with black spots ; ten eyes arranged in a semicircle, a smooth lip, with centre projecting, and is :terrestrial. He has remarked that a species of Mktikeran leech appears to be common throughout the ungles in the western part of India, as well as ikthe islands of Ceylon and Madagascar, and is so abundant, active, and voracious, that it becomes a con siderable obstacle to those who have to pass through localities infested by them, not only extracting a large quantity of blood, but often producing irritable and festering ulcers.
The numbers of these annelids in moist warm parts of the world are immense. Dr. Hooker mentions that, when travelling in Sikkim, between Singhtarn and Chakung, wading 'through deep mud or climbing over rocks, leeches swarmed in incredible numbers in the streams and damp grass, and in the bushes. They got into his hair,
hung on his eyelids, and crawled up his legs and down his back. He repeatedly took upwards of 100 from his legs, where the small ones used to collect in clusters on the instep, and the soles they produced were not healed for five months. He thinks snuff or tobacco applied to the feet the best means of preventing their attacks. He thinks that the extraordinary abundance of these annelids in Sikkim may cause the death of many animals. Some marked murrains have followed very wet seasons, when the leeches appear in incredible numbers; and the disease in the cattle, described to him by the Lepcha as in the stomach, in no way differs from what leeches would pro duce. It is a well-known fact that these creatures have lived for days in the fauces, Dares, and stomachs of the human subject, causing dreadful sufferings and death. He has seen the cattle feeding in places where the leeches so abounded that 50 or 60 were frequently together on his ankles ; and ponies are almost maddened by their biting the fetlocks. It is said that cattle are frequently affected by their adhering to their throats when drinking. Mr. Rohde recommended salt to the ryots as a remedy, and thinks an addition of salt to the bran mash usually given, an effectual remedy. In the dry climate of the W. Dekhan a caste of Hindus rear leeches for hospital use. The full-grown leech of Madras and Bengal will draw six drachms, but those em ployed in Bombay scarcely a drachm.
The leeches used in the Calcutta hospitals are caught in tanks and jhils in the direction of Baraset, by persons who allow them to fasten on the naked skin. In the Upper Provinces a superior kind of leech is used, called the Shaku abadi jock, caught in the tanks about Shakuabad in the Agra district. The Panjab leeches arc the next best, and are procured in abundance about Patiala in the Sirhiud district. The Shakuabad leech will generally bear three applications, and it is the only description of leech that will do so. The animal is of a light olive-green colour, and marked with two bright yellow stripes on the sides. The common wild leech of the Upper Provinces is called Dabri ; but for hospital pur poses it is very inferior to those mentioned. In Europe, leeches are kept in pans with a little soft water, the vessels being covered with canvas to admit the air. In India they are placed in common earthen vessels with moist clay. In Southern India they are found in almost all pools which are not dry in summer, and in which the water is good, and is not impregnated with salts.