Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Excerpt from The Leeches of Minnesota, Vol. 5: Part I. General Account of the Habits and Structure of Leeches; Part II. Anatomy of Placobdella Parasitica; Part III. Classification of the Leeches of Minnesota
The leeches, also cald blood suckers by people in general and Hirudinea by the scientist, are distributed all over the world. They are mentioned in the writings of many of the ancients. Herodotus, who was born about 480 B. C. Wrote about the leech under the name bdella, which still forms the ending of some of our scientific names of certain leeches and groups of leeches. Galen, a Greek physician and author born about 130 A. D., recommended the use of the leech for bloodletting. Other Greek and Roman, German, French and English writers wrote about the leech and its habit of sucking blood, so that in a general way leeches became quite well known centuries ago. The medicinal leech in particular became well known thru a great many more or less extended writ ings on its anatomy and habits and was brought into almost uni versal use by physicians. It was continued in quite general use until about the middle of the 19th century. Altho this leech in particular was in such general use and it and others frequently became objects of scientific study, we did not get a correct concep tion of some of the most prominent features of leech structure until 1900. There is still much to be cleared up concerning the structure and life history of many of our leeches.
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