NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH FRESH-WATER LEECHES. 71
The methods adopted for the capture of leeches were various,.
and some are of interest.
The most primitive mode of capture was for the gatherers
to wade into the pools bare-legged and splash the water. This
causes the leeches to rise to the surface, and some were caught
by hand; others of course fixed themselves to the gatherers'
legs and were subsequently detached. The fact that medicinal
leeches rise to the surface when the water is splashed is hinted
at in Wordsworth's poem already quoted, for the old leech-
gatherer
......"the pond
Stirred with his staff, and fixedly did look
Upon the muddy water, which he conned
As if he had been reading in a book".
In Russia, and on the frontiers of Prussia, the men stripped
to the waist, but near Smyrna the gatherers stripped entirely,
in order to offer a greater surface of attraction. It was found
that the chest and limbs were the favourite places for the leeches
to attack.
More scientific methods of capture were practised on the
Continent, and especially in France. In some cases the leeches
were made to rise by splashing with rods and were caught in
nets of horse hair attached to the end of a light pole. The
gatherers very often wore flannel trousers or top-boots. Baits
in the form of bodies of animals and pieces of meat were also
used. Lines covered with blood served as an excellent bait.
On the approach of storms and during persistent rain, leeches
do not rise readily, and on these occasions the mud from the
pond is scooped up in large wooden spoons, the contents of
which are carefully examined.
The horns and hoofs of cattle were used in certain parts of
Germany ; the leeches crawling into the hollows.
The best time of the year for leech gathering was in spring
and late autumn. The leeches leave the water towards the
end of July and beginning of August, in order to deposit their
cocoons in moist earth.
The large consumption of leeches in Europe almost led to
their extinction. The following quotation from a writer (40)
in the Pharmaceutical Journal in 1870 shows the state of affairs
at that time :—
" France is now obliged to seek leeches from the adjacent countries,
Switzerland, Belgium, the Sardinian States and Greece. Spain and Portu-