December 31, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
521 
THE TRADE I NT LEECHES. 
BY P. L. SIMMONDS. 
Although the commerce in leeches in this country 
lias largely declined of late years, yet the demand 
elsewhere for this small red-blooded aquatic worm is 
so great as to afford employment to a considerable 
number of persons in breeding, catching, and selling 
them. France, which used to be the great empo¬ 
rium for much of the trade, has, within the last few 
months, had weightier matters to attend to than the 
collection and transit of leeches. Hence some few 
particulars and statistics of the trade, as it did exist, 
may not be without interest at the present time. 
Among the works which I have consulted may 
be named ‘ Monographic des Hirudinees,’ par Mo- 
quin-Tandon; ‘ Monographic des Sangsues Medici- 
nales,’ par Ch. Fermond, 508 pp., Bailliere, Paris, 
1851; ‘Memoire sur rHirudiniculture,’ par A. Ph. 
Laurens, 1851; ‘ Nouvelle Monographic des Sang¬ 
sues MedicinaleS',’ par Dr. Ebrard, 401 pp., Paris, 
Bailliere, 1857 ; ‘ Le Guide pratique des Eleveurs de 
Sangsues,’ par L. Vayson ; ‘ La Production des Sang¬ 
sues,’ par Jourdin : Paris, Hacliette et Cie. 
The commerce in leeches may be looked at in dif¬ 
ferent points of view, as the sale, properly so called, 
the importation, export, nature of the commercial 
species sold, their price, falsification and transport, 
but full descriptions on all these would take up too 
much detail. Fermond enumerates seven varieties of 
the medicinal leech; so does Dr. Letlieb} r . It is not 
necessary to give the specific details of these here. In 
this country only two kinds are usually reckoned fit for 
medicinal purposes, viz. the brown leech and the green 
leech ; the former found sparingly in Great Britain, 
but abundantly in northern and central Europe. Dr. 
Letheby says the Sanguisiuja may be known by one 
or both of two characters : they have a continuous 
longitudinal stripe of a yellow or orange colour 
along each margin or side of the body; and se¬ 
condly, when the abdomen is of a lighter tint there 
should always be two lateral black stripes, one run¬ 
ning down on either side. Every leech that does 
not present these, which may be called generic cha¬ 
racters, should be rejected. 
A communication to the Societe Zoologique d’Ac- 
climatation of Paris made known the existence in 
America of leeches possessing this valuable pro¬ 
perty, that they leave no mark on the skin to which 
they are applied, so that they must act not by biting 
but by suction. This curious fact is put beyond a 
doubt by the experiments made upon himself by 
Craveri, a learned Italian. M, de Filippi lias placed 
these leeches in a new genus, which he terms Hccmcn- 
taria, and of which he describes three species, two 
belonging to Mexico and one to the river Amazon. 
The following is the annual declared value of the 
leeches imported into this country in the last seven¬ 
teen years. Formerly the largest quantity came 
from Hamburg, but of late years nearly all the im¬ 
ports were from France :— 
1853 . 
. £27,068 
1862 
. . £9,455 
1854 . 
. 17,238 
1863 
. . 12,393 
1855 . 
. 16,477 
18(51 
. . 9,028 
1856 . 
. 12,926 
1865 
. . 13,314 
1857 . 
. 10,011 
1866 
. . 12,866 
1858 . 
. 11,604 
1867 
. . 8,999 
1859 . 
. 11,919 
1868 
> . 8,876 
1860 . 
. 11,857 
1869 
. . 7,067 
1861 . 
. 11,175 
Tiitud Series, No. 27.. 
This is the foreign import, and exclusive of any 
home supply obtained. It is difficult to arrive at 
numbers in such an article, but the value must re¬ 
present at least two million leeches annually; indeed, 
some years ago it was stated that seven or eight 
millions were annually imported. 
From official figures we find that the import of 
leeches into France annually from 1827 to 1836 was 
34,050,682 ; and from 1837 to 1846,18,538,041. The 
largest quantity was 57,491,000 in 1832 ; the official 
value of these being stated at 1,724,730 francs. In 
subsequent years the imports were greatly reduced, 
as the following figures will show :— 
1847 . . 
. . 11,790,840 
1848 . . 
. . 9,903,398 
1849 . . 
. . 11,112,000 
1850 . . 
. . 11,766,000 
1851 . . 
. . 13,058,500 
1852 . . 
. . 10,415,000 
Adding the home collection and those fraudulently 
imported, the leeches annually employed in France 
may be taken at 30 millions; and many of these 
serve for use several times. According to L. Busquet, 
these 30 millions are differently made up, and he 
considers the largest portion are furnished from the 
native marshes. In 1851 (lie states) we received 
13,058,500 and exported 5,731,000, and therefore, of 
the imports 7,327,500 were retained for consump¬ 
tion ; and as 30 millions are .used, the home supply 
must have been 22,672,500 leeches, of which about 
a third were furnished by the department of the 
Gironde. France is now obliged to seek leeches from 
the adjacent countries, Switzerland, Belgium, the 
Sardinian States and Greece. Spain and Portugal, 
which used to export, are now obliged to draw sup¬ 
plies from abroad. It is the same in Italy. Tuscany 
exports some leeches, but they are considered of an 
inferior quality. Bohemia, which used to furnish 
supplies, now possesses only exhausted marshes. 
Hungary, so rich in leech morasses, commences to be 
impoverished of the kinds which the dealers used to 
send as far as the frontiers of Prussia and Turkey, 
Poland and other countries in the north of Europe. 
Great Britain, which used to be rich in leeches, is 
now forced to draw supplies from France, Germany, 
and Portugal. It is by Bordeaux, Stettin, Ham¬ 
burg and Lisbon that these supplies are drawn. 
Hamburg and Stettin each send about 150,000 per 
month. 
Turkey still supplies leeches. In 1845 the ship¬ 
ments from Constantinople were 120 tubs; in 1846, 
189 ; and in 1847, 108. In 1857, 475 packages and 
cases of leeches, valued at 287,000 piastres, were 
shipped from Smyrna. 
The price has varied greatly in France. For 
fifty years, according to Fee (‘ Cours d’Histoire Na- 
turelle’), they were sold at 12 to 15 francs the 
thousand; in 1815 they were double that price, and 
they gradually advanced to 150 and 200 francs. In 
1849 and 1850 the hospitals at Paris bought them 
at 160 francs the thousand, but in 1851 the price 
rose to 240 francs. The price varies according to 
the size, quality and season. In 1854 it ranged 
from 150 to 190 francs the thousand. If with Vay¬ 
son we take the mean price at 200 francs the thou¬ 
sand, w r e a rrive at the gross annual value of £240,000 
for leeches in France. The wholesale merchants 
will not, however, admit that the sum is so large. 
Leeches are found to a great extent in the lakes 
