On cutting off the tails of leeches / by S.M.

  • Samuel Merriman
Date:
[1816]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On cutting off the tails of leeches / by S.M. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    352 On Cutting off the Tails of Leeches. this communication: it is hastily elicited by a perusal of* Dr. Kinglake*s paper, which, coming from respectable authority, if suffered to go unanswered, may be the cause of much mischief. March, 1816. Lor the London Medical and Physical Journal. On Cutting off the Tails of Leeches; by S. M. THE practice of cutting off the tails of leeches, to promote an increased flow of blood, is by no means novel. It has been familiar to me since I was a very tyro in medical studies, from the perusal of “ Heister’s Surgery,” which was first published in he says, “ if it be necessary to draw a large quantity of blood, you must cut oft1 the tails of those which are drawing w'ith a pair of scissars, by which means the blood will run through them, and they will draw almost as long as you please.” But this practice is to be traced much farther back. Tiberio Malsi, who published at Naples, in 162ft, in folio, his “ Nuova Prattica della Decoratoria Manuale, et della Sagnia; I’unaa Barbieri, et 1’altra a Chirurgici singolarmente necessaria, &c.’’ mentions the same mode of managing leeches, and speaks of it as an old custom, for he says, “ the ancients used a kind of pincers for this purpose, which to me does not appear very proper, the same thing being ef- fected more easily by a pair of scissars.” The whole para- graph runs thus:—“ Ma perche questo modo di far’ uscire il sangue, reca al patiente tal’hora molto travaglio per lo Iungo tempo, die occorre stare sedente a cotal guisa ; e tal volta anco si ritrovano le farze de gPinfermi assai deboli, et diminute, percio ho stimato qiii altri modi annotare, per li quali senza tanto travaglio, 1’uscita libera del sangue havor ?i possa. Et il primo si e, che stando le sanguesughe succhiando, lor si dia una forficata per lungo neU’estremo della coda, se bene con destrezza, accio nel succhiar loro il sangue goccioli in uu vasetto a cio pressarato. Gli Antichi per quest’eflretto si valevano d’una certa tenagliuola; il che a me non pare motto a proposito, potendosi haver l’intento a piu facilmente, con le forbid.”—Lib. terzo. p. J46. Half-Moon-street; sipril 2, 1316.
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