72 NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH FRESH-WATER LEECHES. 
gal, which used to export, are now obliged to draw supplies 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 Russia 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." 
Legislation in France and Germany followed, relating to 
exportation and closed seasons. The French encouraged the 
establishment of breeding grounds, and the Societe d’Encourage- 
ment pour 1 ’Industrie Nationale gave several medals and prizes. 
The first to breed leeches successfully in France was, according 
to Ebrard (14), an illiterate butcher, of Dompierre, named 
Micholet. He was an excellent observer, and by carefully 
imitating the conditions under which the leeches lived naturally 
he raised large quantities of these animals. His efforts were 
rewarded by the Society named above, which gave him a medal 
and a prize. 
Briefly, leech-culture consisted in placing mature and overfed 
leeches (termed vaches) in suitable ponds and artificial sheets 
of water. Cocoons were deposited in the banks and in due 
lime the young (germemenis) hatched out. As soon as they grew 
large enough to be retained in the meshes of the net used in 
fishing for them, they were called filets. The young are able 
to draw blood from frogs, newts and man also immediately 
after escaping from the cocoon. The leeches were then fed 
on blood for about three or four years, when they were ready 
e 
for market. 
Several books on leech-culture were published in France, 
the more notable being those of Moquin-Tandon (37), Ebrard 
(14), Vayson (43), Fermond (16) and Laurens (33). From 
these authors we gather that the most suitable sheets of water 
are those having a sloping bottom of sandy clay. This would 
allow aquatic plants to flourish in the shallower parts, and the 
deeper parts would serve as retreats during periods of heat or 
cold. Medicinal Leeches seem to flourish best in ponds in which 
the following plants grow readily, viz. :— Glyceria fluitans, 
Potamogeton natans, Carices of various species and Chara 
hispida. The pond should be supplied with water 
from a stream or another pond or with rain water, as water taken 
