SANGUISUGA. 



occurs ; for the vesicles are not compressed, and therefore the 

 leech continues to suck. 



Various means have been suggested to facilitate the appli- 

 cation of leeches ; the part should not only be made clean 

 and dry, as already directed, but the leech itself should 

 also be dried in a clean cloth before applying it. Then place 

 the leech in a glass or in the lid of a pill-box, and invert it 

 upon the affected part ; or if this fail, scratch the surface 

 of the skin with the point of a lancet, and apply the leech on 

 the spot moistened with blood. Perhaps the best and sim- 

 plest method is, to fold up a clean, soft towel like a napkin, 

 and make a small hollow in it with the point of the fingers, 

 into which the dried leeches are to be placed. On applying 

 the towel, it is to be held over the part by placing the hand 

 on it until the leech bites, after which it is to be removed. If 

 the skin be much inflamed and hot, a little tepid water should 

 be poured into the water containing the leeches before they 

 are taken out of it to be applied ; and this should also be 

 done, if it be requisite to apply them within the mouth, on the 

 verge of the anus, or within the vagina. If the patient be 

 taking sulphur internally, or externally applying it, leeches 

 will not bite ; neither will they bite if tobacco-smoke, or vin- 

 egar in vapor, or sulphur, or any foetid odor, be diffused through 

 the apartment of the patient. 



When leeches are applied to soft parts, for instance, to 

 the abdomen, a large quantity of blood is sometimes ob- 

 tained, particularly when a poultice is laid over the bites, and 

 the patient is kept warm in bed ; to prevent, therefore, inju- 

 rious symptoms of exhaustion from such a circumstance, the 

 poultice should be frequently examined. Danger from this 

 cause is more likely to occur in children than in adults, and 

 in children it not unfrequently happens that the bleeding can- 

 not be stopped without much trouble. The best method of 

 stopping the bleeding, when ordinary means fail, is to crush 

 to powder a small piece of nitrate of silver, and to melt the 

 salt in a watch-glass over a candle, and then to dip into the 

 melted salt the triangular pointed end of a silver probe, previ- 

 ously heated. The point becomes thus coated with the nitrate, 

 and on introducing it into the leech-bites, they instantly cease 

 to bleed. The bleeding may be stopped by encircling the 

 orifice with a ligature. On this account, leeches Should never 

 be applied late at night on children, for as the application of 



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