APODA. 
427 
ford Lough. November, 1846. — The largest of great size, the smallest (three 
or four) an inch long, one of them adherent to a capsule or ovum of a 
blackish-brown colour. September, 1847. — Several (one large adult) 
taken among herrings brought to Belfast from Strangford Lough. 
P. spinulosa , Leach (Zool. Mis., vol. ii. pi. 65). 
Belfast Bay, adherent to cod ; adhering to roof of mouth of ling in 
Belfast market, caught at Killinchy, in October, 1846. Carlingford, 
Stranraer, Scotland (with oysters to Belfast). 
P. Icevis, Blainville. 
A Pontobdella in my collection agrees with this species in all the de- 
tailed characters assigned to it in the work referred to, in which the 
description is taken from^Blainville’s in the Diet. Sci. Nat., t. 47, 1827, p. 
243. The species differs from P. muricata and P. verrucata , as its name 
denotes, in being smooth ; which it is all over the surface. Where the 
specimen described by Blainville was procured was not known ; but it is 
stated to have been sent to him by M. Paretto of Genoa. Mine, which 
may be noted as 4 inches in length, was obtained alive in April, 1838, 
either at Portpatrick or Donaghadee, by Capt. Fayrer, R. N., who com- 
manded the mail steam-packets between these ports. This gentleman re- 
marked at that period, when sending me the specimen, that he found it 
in the bottom of a fisherman’s boat, into which it must have been brought 
with sea-weed, then being gathered for manure at low-water. This 
Pontobdella gave out to the spirits in which it was put for preservation a 
beautiful scarlet colour. A specimen of P. muricata which I lately (Oct., 
1846) received, imparted a beautiful and intense green colour to the 
spirits in which it was placed 
Genus ELemopsis. 
JET. vorax, Johnston. 
Not uncommon in the North of Ireland, W. T. 
Genus Hirudo. 
.iff. medicinalis, Linn. 
“There are also medicinal leeches* on the south side of the lake 
[Mask],” see O’Flagherty’s West or H-Iar Connaught, p. 19, written in 
1684. Published in 1846 by the Irish Archeeol. Soc. 
Medicinal Leech. — November , 1849. — W. It. Wilde, Esq., when at Lough 
Mask in September last, inquired about this, and was told that it had of 
late become scarce in consequence of the draining of the lake by the canal 
between it and Lough Corrib. It is found in pools and wells in the 
vicinity of Lough Mask, near the canal. A woman who consulted him 
about her child, which he ordered to be bled with leeches, said the kind 
from the lake was far better than that at the doctor’s, which was smaller 
and sold at Is. each. In summer the leech-gatherers there sit with their 
legs in the water, on which the creatures fasten and are thus obtained. 
* Irish, Dallog . — The leeches found here are stated to be of a good kind ; but 
whether they are used or approved of by medical men for topical bleeding, I 
have not ascertained. The country people in the neighbourhood use them with 
good effect. 
