NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH FRESH-WATER LEECHES. 63
in nettles and in salt, and is thereby compelled to cast out of his body
if he hath tasted any venomous thing in warm water."
Moufet, who lived about the middle of the 17th century, has
a good deal to say about Leeches in his Theater of Insects, though
most of his remarks are quotations from classical authors.
He calls them all "Horsleaches,"4 but it is evident that the
Medicinal Leech is meant in many cases. Like all the naturalists
of his time he was a firm believer in the doctrine of spontaneous
generation and states that Leeches are bred from the mud of
stagnant pools. He quaintly continues thus:
" Once bred they most greedily thirst after bloud, and therefore lie
in wait at the very entrance of the pools, so that they may light upon
Horses, Oxen, Elephants, etc., so soon as they come to drink for thirst
of cold water. Pliny writes, that they are so troublesome to the Elephant,
that the beast is by their tickling and sucking in his snout, almost mad;
which doth manifestly show the wonderful power of Insects. For what
is there greater than an elephant, and what is there more contemptible
than a Horsleech? Yet the greatness and the. wit of the Elephant
must give way and yield to this worm."
After citing numerous cases of the cure of various diseases
by bleeding with Leeches, Moufet goes on to state, on the
authority of Gilbertus Anglicus, that certain diseases may be
cured with the "ashes of Horsleeches boyled with storax":—
" For they are not only useful for men whilst they are alive, but when
they are dead and burnt to ashes. Pliny reports that Horsleeches will
black one's hair, if they be corrupted in black wine for sixty days ; others
bid us take one sextarius of Leeches and let them lie to corrupt in two
sextarii of vinegar, in a leaden vessel for so many days and then to anoynt
them in the sun."
It would seem that the use of this particular hair-dye has not
always produced happy results, for Moufet adds :—
'Sornatius relates that this medicament is of so great force that unless
they hold Oyl in their mouths that die the hair, it will also black their
teeth."
The beauty doctors of those days found yet another use for
this ingredient, and we are told that
" Meges writes that live Frogs putrified in vinegar will take off the hair,
but the ashes of Leeches anoynted with vinegar will doe the same."
This belief seems to have survived for some time, for Fernie,
in his Animal Simples, quotes from a book entitled a Thousand
Notable Things:—
" It is ordered to take Horse leeches and burn them to powder, and
4 In the New Forest Medicinal Leeches are called "Horseleeches" and they feed on horses