A HISTORY OF 



wards the tail, it is seen to have a gullet and 

 an intestinal canal, into which the blood (lows 

 in great abundance. On each side of this are 

 seen running along several little bladders, 

 which, when the animal is empty, seem to be 

 filled with nothing but water; but when it is 

 goro-ing blood, they seem to communicate 

 with the intestines, and receive a large por- 

 tion of the blood which flows into the body. 

 If these bladders should be considered as so 

 many stomachs, then every leech will be 

 found to have twenty-four. But what is most 

 extraordinary of all in this animal's formation 

 is, that though it takes so large a quantity of 

 food, it has no anus or passage to eject it 

 from the body when it has been digested. 

 On the contrary, the blood which the leech 

 has thus sucked remains for several months 

 clotted within its body, blackened a liltle by 

 the change, but no way putrefied, and very 

 little altered in its texture or consistence. 

 In what manner it passes through the animal's 

 body, or how it contributes to its nourishment, 

 is not easily accounted for. The water in 

 which they are kept is very little discoloured 

 by their continuance ; they cannot be sup- 

 posed to return the blood by the same 

 passage through which it was taken in ; 

 it only remains, therefore, that it goes off 

 through the pores of the body, and that 

 these are sufficiently large to permit its ex- 

 clusion. 



But it is not in this instance alone that the 

 leech differs from all other insects. It was 

 remarked in a former chapter, that the whole 

 insect tribe had the opening into their lungs 

 placed in their sides, and that they breathed 

 through those apertures as other animals 

 through the mouth. A drop of oil poured on 

 the sides of a wasp, a bee, or a worm, would 

 quickly suffocate them, by stopping up the 

 passages through which they breath ; but it 

 is otherwise with the leech, for this animal 

 may be immersed in oil without injury; nay, 

 it will live therein ; and the 'only damage it 

 will sustain is, that, when taken out, it will 

 be seen to cast a fine pellucid skin exactly 

 of the shape of the animal, after which it is 

 as alert and vigorous as before. It appears 

 fronrhence that the leech breaths through 

 the month: and. in fie , it has a motion thnt 

 i to reseuble the act of respiration in 



more perfect animals: but concerning all this 

 we are very much in the dark. 



This animal seems to differ from all others 

 in several respects: the rest of the reptile 

 tribe are brought forth from eggs; the leech 

 is viviparous, and produces its young one 

 after the other, to the number of forty or fifty 

 at a birth. It is probable that, like the snail, 

 each insect contains the two sexes, and that 

 it impregnates and is impregnated in the 

 same manner. The young ones are chiefly 

 found in the month of July, in shallow running 

 waters, and particularly where they are 

 tepified by the rays of the sun. The large 

 ones are chiefly sought after ; and being put 

 into a glass vessel filled with water, they re- 

 main for months, nay for years, without 

 taking any other subsistence. But they 

 never breed in this confinement; and, conse- 

 quently, what regards that part of their his- 

 tory still remains obscure. 



In this part of the world they seldom grow 

 to above four inches ; but in America and 

 the East they are found from six to seven. 

 Their pools there abound with them in such 

 numbers, that it would be dangerous bathing 

 there, if for no other consideration. Our 

 sailors and soldiers, who the last war were 

 obliged to walk in those countries through 

 marshy grounds, talk with terror of the num- 

 ber of leeches that infested them on their 

 march. Even in some parts of Europe they 

 increase so as to be'come formidable. Sede- 

 lius, a German physician, relates, that a girl 

 of nine years old, who was keeping sheep 

 near the city of Bomst in Poland, percei\ing 

 a soldier making up to her, went to hide her- 

 self in a neighbouring marsh among some 

 bushes; but the number of leeches was so 

 great in that place, and they stuck to her so 

 close, that the poor creature expired from 

 the quantity of blood which she lost by their 

 united efforts. Nor is this much to be won- 

 dered at, since one of those insects that, 

 when empty, generally weighs but a scruple, 

 will, when gorged, weigh more than two 

 drachms. 



When leeches are to be applied, the best 



way is to take them from the water in which 



they are contained about an hour before, for 



: thr-y thus become more voracious and fasten 



ij more readily. When saturated with blood, 



