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Overall Rating: 3.25 based on 8 ratings
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Use of leeches for "safe" bloodletting persisted until the late 19th century. It was believed that leeches were capable of sucking "bad humors" from the body, in addition to blood. The species of leech and the location attached was important: a recorded remedy for headache from the 18th century was to "apply six Algerian dragon leeches to the forehead and temples and allow them to draw blood for two hours." (Add picture)

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Reviews for Leeches  1-6 OF 6

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irishgit (151)
06/15/2007
Having twice had leeches attach themselves to me while swimming as a child, I can't imagine why anyone would volunteer for it.

  (9 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree)
HistoryFan (100)
12/05/2005
Yes, it's true: maggots and leeches are still used in medicine as a way to eliminate dead tissue and drain nasty wounds. In the Civil War, soldiers' wounds had healed quite nicely thanks to maggots that ate away at infected skin.

  (2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree)
Djahuti (57)
01/14/2005
No longer used in Medicine,Leeches have gone on to a new career in Politics.

  (2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree)
LadyShark4534 (12)
02/06/2004
What GoneAway said was really informative. And it's true. Leeches are still used for purposes in medicine.

  (2 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree)
scarletfeather (54)
02/02/2004
Well, I whine about not liking needles, so I guess I should just count myself lucky that I didn't live 200 years ago when leeches were all the rage. I think I have read that the common practice of leeching actually hastened people's deaths instead of preventing them. Makes sense to me!

  (6 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree)
Enkidu (38)
02/01/2004
As an interesting side note, the non-native leeches that infest a lot of lakes in the U.S. are descendants of medical waste from a previous time. --No wonder people avoided doctors and hospitals long ago.

  (4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree)
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