CHAP. 42.—METHODS OF ARRESTING HÆMORRHAGE AND OF LETTING BLOOD. THE POLYP: ONE REMEDY.
Fish, used as an aliment, it is generally thought, make
blood. The polyp,
1 bruised and applied, arrests hæmorrhage,
it is thought: in addition to which we find stated the following
particulars respecting it—that of itself it emits a sort of
brine, in consequence of which, there is no necessity to use
any in cooking it—that it should always be sliced with a reed
—and that it is spoilt by using an iron knife, becoming tainted
thereby, owing to the antipathy
2 which naturally exists
(between it and iron). For the purpose also of arresting
hæmorrhage, ashes of burnt frogs are applied topically, or else
the dried blood of those animals. Some authorities recommend
the frog to be used, that is known by the Greeks as
"calamites,"
3 from the fact that it lives among reeds
4 and
shrubs; it is the smallest and greenest of all the frogs, and
either the blood or the ashes of it are recommended to be employed.
Others, again, prescribe, in cases of bleeding at the
nostrils, an injection of the ashes of young water-frogs, in the
tadpole state, calcined in a new carthen vessel.
On the other hand, again, in cases where it is required to
let blood, the kind of leech is used which is known among
us by the name of "sanguisuga.
5" Indeed, the action of
these leeches is looked upon as pretty much the same as that
of the cupping-glasses
6 used in medicine, their effect being to
relieve the body of superfluous blood, and to open the pores of
the skin. Still, however, there is this inconvenience attending
them—when they have been once applied, they create a
necessity
7 for laving recourse to the same treatment at about
the same period in every succeeding year. Many physicians
have been of opinion also, that leeches may be successfully applied
in cases of gout. When gorged, they fall off in consequence
of los<*>ag their hold through the weight of the blood,
but if not, they must be sprinkled with salt
8 for the purpose.
Leeches ar apt, however, to leave their heads buried in the
flesh; the consequence of which is an incurable wound, which
has caused death in many cases, that of Messalinus,
9 for example,
a patrician of consular rank, after an application of
leeches to his knee. When this is the case, that which was
intended as a remedy is turned into an active poison;
10 a result
which is to be apprehended in using the red leeches more
particularly. Hence it is that when these last are employed,
it is the practice to snip them with a pair of scissors while
sucking; the consequence of which is, that the blood oozes
forth, through a siphon, as it were, and the head, gradually
contracting as the animal dies, is not left behind in the wound.
There is a natural antipathy
11 existing between leeches and
bugs, and hence it is that the latter are killed by the aid
of a fumigation made with leeches. Ashes of beaver-skin
burnt with tar, kneaded up with leek-juice, arrest bleeding at
the nostrils.