144 HIRUDO MEDICINALIS. 



they are made frequent mention of in the writings of Dioscorides, 

 Celsus, and Paulus iEgineta. Their medical application is 

 likewise described by Themison, who wrote before Celsus and 

 Galen, in the time of Augustus. He was in the habit of 

 applying a cupping-glass after the Leech had quitted its hold, 

 Pliny, who flourished during the reign of Tiberius, Vespatian, and 

 Titus, speaks of the advantages to be derived from the use of 

 Leeches in cases of gout, and warmly recommends their application, 

 in various diseases, to the hsemorrhoidal veins. The Arabian phy- 

 sicians were well acquainted with the utility of Leeches ; and 

 Rhazes, in particular, relates numerous cures which he effected 

 with their assistance. Aretceus recommends the use of Leeches in 

 angina and advises their application to the hips in satyriasis. 

 Orisbasius, who flourished about the year 330, wrote on the advan- 

 tage of extracting blood by Leeches. ^Etius, who lived about the 

 year 445, in his treatise, " De atra Bile sive Melancholia," men- 

 tions the successful application of Leeches in inflammation and 

 obstruction of the liver. Paulus ^Egineta, who flourished in the early 

 part of the seventh century, points out the method of curing pain 

 in the head, in fevers, by the application of Leeches to the occiput. 

 Arnoldus recommends their speedy application to the wounds 

 inflicted by a rabid animal ; and Paracelus used to apply them in 

 cases of jaundice. By the chemical practitioners of medicine, 

 Leeches were not at all employed, because they were accustomed 

 to reprobate all evacuations of blood as useless and hurtful ; even 

 Van Helmont would not suffer them to be applied to an hsemor- 

 rhoidal swelling. The use of Leeches in the practice of physic 

 appears to have been revived by Senneretus, and Zacutus Lusitanus, 

 who, in nearly all diseases, recommends their application to the 

 vessels of the anus. 



Medical Uses. — It would be an almost endless task to 

 enumerate the great variety of medical and surgical cases in which 

 leeches may be employed with advantage. It will be sufficient to 

 observe, indeed, that in all diseases, where the local abstraction of 

 blood is necessary, particularly in inflammatory affections, in 

 topical pains, and in the greater number of tumours, they are 

 preferable to cupping, which is attended with much pain and irri - 



