62 NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH FRESH-WATER LEECHES.
Luther and Gesner as "leech." Their reasons were that in
Arabic writings, leeches were denoted by the words Alcea, Aletha,
Alag, which approach the Hebrew word. The word "Alak"
is used by the inhabitants of Cairo for the Leeches of the Nile.
Other translators maintain that the Hebrew word means fate
or destiny (37).3
The ancient Hebrews and Orientals were apparently unaware
of the use of the Medicinal Leech (27). The Greeks and Romans
used it in medicine, and early writings abound in references.
Themison, an eminent physician of Laodicea in Syria, who
lived about 100 B.C., is credited with being the first to use Leeches
for medicinal purposes.
Brandt and Ratzeburg (8) give many references to early
classical writings, and from these we learn that the ancients
applied Leeches to wounds caused by rabid dogs, and in cases
of bites and stings. Leeches were also used in cases of angina
accompanied by dyspnoea, in hepatitis, and lumbago (Aretaeus,
Lib. ii., c. 6). Liver troubles, headaches, vertigo, epilepsy
and piles were treated by the application of Leeches. One
physician (H. Mercurialis) stated that the Leech made
such a small hole that only the thinner portion of the blood
passed out, while the thicker parts remained behind. This
observation is interesting, as recent researches have shown that
the Medicinal Leech secretes a fluid which prevents the coagula-
tion of blood (see p. 67). In the Saxon Glosses of the 10th century
the word "Sanguisuge" is translated as loece, liche leche, &c.
In Chaucer's time the word Leech also meant a physician. Dr.
Murray says that probably the words were at one time distinct,
but were assimilated to loece through popular etymology.
In Queen Elizabeth's time Dryden uses the word to mean
physician:—
" Wise Leeches will not vain receipts obtrude,
While growing pains pronounce the humours crude."
Bartholomeus Anglicus, a Minorite friar who lived in the
early part of the 13th century, compiled an encyclopaedia en-
titled De Proprietatibus Rerum. In an English translation of
a later date we are told that
" The water leech sitteth upon venomous things, and therefore, when
he shall be set to a member bycause of medicine, first he shall be wrapped
3 Numbers within brackets refer to the Bibliography at the end of the paper.