Leech Lore

For nearly 2,000 years leeches have been used in phlebotomy. As late as 100 years ago leech gathering was a major rural occupation in Europe, but nowadays among physicians the speech is in bad repute. Nonetheless, in Manhattan last week Reporter A. J. Liebling of the World-Telegram interviewed one Bernhard Berkitz who for 35 years has made his living as a leech-dealer.

Said he: "See what a nice leech. See how quick it takes. . . . The domestic leech sticks, but it does not absorb. The best leeches come from Germany and Sweden. During the War we could not get German leeches. I imported some Greek leeches, and they were very good too, but somehow I could not feel at home with them. . . . The leech is an epicure. If he is not hungry you put a little sugar water on the skin to coax him. To make him let go you put salt water. . . . He is also a social barometer. If Prohibition was a success, then there would be less drunks, less black eyes, less demand for leeches. But no, the leech business is good. . . . You drive an old horse into the water. When he comes out he is covered with leeches. But better yet is a nice fat lady. . . ."

The leech is a form of worm which lives on blood, can absorb as much as three or four times its body weight. Around its mouth is a sucker surrounded by a network of strong muscles. It makes a triangular incision in its victim, clamps on the sucker, pumps out the blood the while secreting a ferment which prevents the blood from coagulating. In tropical countries leeches attack men and beasts; in Western Asia, Southern Europe, North Africa they are imbibed in drinking water, cause hemorrhages, nosebleed, headache, asphyxia. They are hermaphrodites. In the U. S. they are retailed in some drug stores at 50-c- each, used for black eyes, high blood pressure.

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