PRESERVATION OF LEECHES. 
313 
ART. LXX. — ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHLORINE, AND HY- 
DROCHLORIC AND SULPHURIC ACIDS, FOR THE PRE- 
SERVATION OF LEECHES. 
M. Roder, pharmacien at Lenzburg, had seen a great 
number of leeches perish in the course of the year 1S45, 
by an epidemic; all the means of preservation known, such 
as charcoal, honey, sugar, etc., having failed. He had then 
recourse to chlorine; to 48 ounces of water he added three, 
four, five drops or more, of solution of chlorine; put the 
leeches in it, and left them for ten or fifteen minutes, when 
the chlorine water was replaced by pure water; this treat- 
ment saved the leeches without the necessity of renewing 
it. 
The same end would probably be attained by the ad- 
dition of some drops of hydrochloric acid to neutralize the 
ammonia which has been developed, and which is, as every 
one knows, a dangerous poison for leeches ; in fact, they were 
preserved very well in water acidulated by earthy turf ? 
which contains a small quantity of crenic acid, and perhaps 
acetic acid. The employment of ordinary sulphuric acid, 
very diluted, (five or six drops to twelve ounces of water,) 
has equally proved beneficial in another case of the epi- 
demic of leeches. The acidulated water was replaced by 
pure water, and every trace of the disease disappeared 
completely. Journ. de Pharm. et de Qhim. 
29 
