Leeches

Following the examination the lancet, next to it you notice preserved leeches. These blood sucking creatures have been used in medicine for hundreds of years to try and treat various different illnesses. You notice the razor sharp teeth that surround the mouth of this vampire-like predator. They feed from sucking the blood out from a host and break it down to gain the nutrients. People have been utilizing these annelids have been used for many medical purposes throughout history and still have a place in medical sciences today.

Erin Sullivan wrote and article for The Lancet which described how using leeches was similar to bloodletting. The overall idea was to try and rebalance the body of the four humors and rid the body of the excess black bile that was causing the melancholic feelings and behaviors. Doctors would try and do this by placing leeches onto the patient's haernorrhoidal veins. This leeches would then begin to suck out the unwanted bile to attempt to cure the melancholy from the sufferer and bring back balance to their life. John Upshaw and Patrick O'Leary back up these ideas in their article written for The American Surgeon. They describe how the use of leeches grew in popularity due to how they tended to be less painful to the user and could allow for a more precise amount of blood to be removed from the body. They also describe how the use for leeches has grown over time. In the the century, it was discovered that a leech's saliva contains an anticoagulant called hirudin which prevents the blood from clotting as fast as normal. This resulted in leeches being a possible way to try and control blood clots from occurring in patients who were more susceptible to it. There are some risks involved with using leeches for medical purposes however. ScienceDirect writes about how some leeches are known to carry various viruses, bacteria, and fungi that can make the host sick. This can result in many different illnesses that can result in many different other complications occurring. Another part of leech therapy that is mentioned is how the reuse of leeches on different people is strictly prohibited. This could be because one patient has an illness and it could be transferred to the next patient. Another issue that could occur is the mixing of different blood types. If either of these situations occur, then the one host could get very sick and possibly die. This was most likely a more common occurrence during the melancholic times as they did not have this science available to them. Overall, when comparing the effectiveness of leech therapy to general bloodletting, it was widely considered better as it could be more precise and less painful. That is why it is sometimes still seen today, meanwhile traditional bloodletting has almost died out completely.