THE LEEOHES OF JAPAN. 319 
organs on the first ring of each complete somite, and the serial 
homology of these with the eyes. 
In a postscript I have given the results of a histological 
study of these sense-organs, and considered the question of 
their function. 
Tue Lanp Lercu. 
The Land Leech has long been known to naturalists, but 
chiefly through reports of a non-scientific character. The 
burden of the story so often told by travellers, missionaries, and 
army officers returning from the East, especially from Ceylon 
and the Himalayas, is that the ]Jand Leech is a bloodthirsty 
little pest which often makes itself extremely troublesome to 
both man and beast. An army surgeon has reported several 
cases in which men have been made cripples by their bite; and 
an old authority, Bosc, has given wide circulation to the asser- 
tion that persons asleep have sometimes been attacked by 
these creatures in such numbers that death has ensued. 
Naturalists on collecting tours have sometimes found the 
woods so thickly settled by these little bloodsuckers that they 
could save themselves only by beating a very hasty retreat. 
A whole battalion of English soldiers, according to report, 
were once driven out of the woods by such overwhelming 
numbers of leeches that facing them was found to be quite 
impossible. They advance with such astonishing rapidity that 
some observers have been led to believe that they can actually 
spring from the ground, and have therefore given them the 
name of “ jumping Leeches.” 
As an example of what has been written on this subject, the 
following remarks by old Robert Knox! are introduced : 
“In dry weather none of them appear, but immediately 
upon the fall of rains, the grass and woods are full of them. 
These Leeches seize upon the legs of travellers, who, going 
barefoot, according to the custom of that land (Ceylon), have 
them hanging upon their legs in multitudes, which suck their 
blood till their bellies are full, and then drop off. They come 
1 ‘Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon,’ pp. 48, 49, 1681. 
