HOMOGANGLIATA. 



Invertebrated Animals. 



No. 17. 

 SANGUISUGA. 



BLOOD-SUCKING LEECHES. 



The animal. A medicinal agent. 



. Position. Europe. 



Quality. Blood-sucking. 



Power. Important therapeutic agent. 



Use. Local abstraction of blood. 



SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS. 



Natural Classification. 



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3. DIVISION Homogangliata. CLASS Annelida. 



Ballard and Garrod, Mat. Med. 461. Syst. Nat. Gmelin, I. 3095. Jones, An. 

 King. 191. Pereira, Mat. Med. II. 770. Thomson, Mat. Med. 332. Lond. 

 Disp. 373. U. S. Disp. 384. Wyatt, Nat. Hist. 112. EC. Disp. U. S. 209. 



GENUS SANGUISUGA. 



Sangsue (Fr.), Blutegel, ^Egle, Lyche-lake (Ger.), Sanguisuca Mignatta (It.), 

 Sanguijuela (Sp.), Pijavoka (Pol.), Jonc (Hind.), Jelauca (San.), Utter (Tarn.), 

 Kheruheen (Ara.), Zeloo (Pers.), Patchet (Malay), Lek, Leikeis (Moeso-Gothic), 

 Lsec, Lece (Saxon), Laekare, Lseknare (Gothic and Swed.), Likaer (Sclav.). 



THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS. 



Body more or less elongated, divided by a great number of 



transverse lines into numerous rings. 

 Skin soft, segmented and annulated. 

 Articulated members and wings absent. 

 Blood red, and circulates in a double system of arteries and 



veins. 

 Mode of reproduction, almost all hermaphrodite, though gen- 



erally they require the congress of two individuals for im- 



pregnation. 



THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS. 



SANGUISUGA. Body elongated. Back convex. Belly flat. 

 Extremities somewhat narrowed, furnished with discs or suck- 

 ers. The anterior extremities somewhat narrower than the 



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