The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-15
THE BLOODSUCKER INDUSTRY.
Most of the Medicinal Leeches Com
From Europe-HoW Cultivated.

/
From Europe-HOw Cultivated.
WASHINGTON City, Nov. Especial Cor
respondence. congress ought surely to
| place protective tariff on leeches. For
years past the European leech has been
driving the American variety out of the
market in the United States until there
has come to be hardly any sale worth
mentioning for domestic leeches, except in
| Philadelphia. Physicians in that CITY
| have continued to maintain the value of
leeches born and raised in this country.
About all the collecting of these interest
| ing worms done at present in Uncle Sans
realm is limited to Bucks and Berks coun-
ties in Pennsylvania.
In former times many ponds in Eastern
Massachusetts, including the south end of
Cape Cod, were noted for the great num-
Der of leeches which they contained. and
early in the present century leeches were
| regularly collected from them for medici-
nal purposes. Though bigger than the
foreign species, often reaching twelve
inches In length, they are not so powerful
as blood-suckers, and for this very reason
they are preferred to the latter for the
treatment of certain complaints. They
1 can be used freely and with less danger to
the patient; also they can be employed
| upon delicate parts OF the body, where the
| imported kind would act too vigorously.
| For application near the eye they
are especially recommended, and several
| are sometimes used, distributed over a
wide space, where it is thought best not to
| extract the entire amount of blood from a
single point. 1t is said that four Amer
| lean leeches are required to do the work OF
| one European specimen. However, If
they are feeble so much the more do they
need protection.
OF late there has been reaction of opin-
| ION among physicians in favor of leeches
as method OF drawing blood. The BUSH
| ness of raising leeches for medicinal pur-
poses has been carried on proftably in
Europe for many years. Up to forty years
ago the Old World obtained its supplies of
leeches mostly from Sweden, Russia, Po-
! land and Hungary. The swampy re-
gions where they grew and were
| gathered underwent extensive drain
ing operations from time to time,
| until at length vast areas once rendered
profitable by their swarms were dried up.
! Thus was occasioned a famine of leeches,
and all Europe suddenly awoke to the re-
alization of great misfortune. Strenu-
GUS efforts were made to find a remedy,
| and several governments offered premi-
ums for successful results in leech cult
| ure. At the present time nearly all of
| the leeches used abroad come from arti-
| fetal ponds and meadows in the South of
| France. Paris is the principal receiving
center for them, and from that city they
are sent to England and the United
States, and to South America through
| New York.
The localities selected for propagating
| purposes are swampy meadows, where the
| bottom is firm and solid. Areas chosen
| are divided into rectangular plots by
| bitches. The breeding season arrives in
| June and July, and at this time water is
mi nd int fha ifnt,
meadow flats remaining dry. The eggs
are laid by the leeches in the loose soil at
| the margins of the bitches. When the
| young ones are Matched. six weeks later,
| the meadows are overtiowed artiticially to
depth of six or eight inches Before the
| young come out of the eggs, as many of
The old ones as possible are caught and
| transferred to other places, lest
they eat too much of the food
| required by the newly Matched
| offspring. The young leeches are fed
| upon the blood of living horses and cattle,
which are driven into the shallow water
| twice week and permitted to remain for
certain time. 1t is only the feet of the
| animals that the worms attack, but they
f! get enough sustenance in this way to grow
rapidly. Fresh blood from the slaughter
houses is also fed to them, or sometimes
| they are placed In it while it is still warm
for short while. During the winter they
remain torpid at the bottom.
1t has been stated that owners of ponds
are accustomed to buy old and diseased
horses for driving into the leech preserves,
| allowing the poor beasts to be bled to
death by the blood-suckers, which fasten
upon all parts of their bodies and kill them
by slow torture. This may be done some
times, but is certainly not COM
mon practice. In three years
the leeches are of marketable size,
measuring an average of two inches in
length. They are graded in the market as
small, medium and large; but the very
big ones are kept for breeding only, being
considered too dangerous to USE They
are transported and stored in wooden
eases or pals containing swamp earth or
mold. The bite of a European leech is
much deeper than that of an American
specimen, and the bleeding lasts longer
after the creature is detached
Ponds for propagating leeches artif-
cially have been established in years past
on Long Island, in New Jersey and near
st. Louis, but they have not proved sue
cesstul, presumably for lack of knowledge
on the part eff the owners. One of these
preserves not many miles from New York
city, covering fifteen acres. is at
present employed for keeping surplus sup
plies of imported leeches. Turtles, snakes,
birds and some insects are enemies of the
leeches. The latter ordinarily subsist on
fishes, frogs and tadpoles, attaching them
selves to the throats of their victims and
quickly killing thin. They are hermaph-
rodite, each individual laying from six TO
fifteen eggs in spongy, shiny cocoon,
half an inch in diameter. Such coeoons
may often be seen near the edge of pools.
where they are left to be Matched by the
heat of the sun. There are great many
species of leeches, but only one is native
to North America that has medicinal
value, and two To Europe.