Bloodletting and the use of Hirudotherapy

Been used since Egyptian times about 3,500 years ago.
Was used to treat nervous disorders, headaches, toothache, skin diseases, general infections.
Bloodletting was used to ‘balance the humours of the body’ causing disease.
Special blades were used to cut into veins to let the blood flow (fleams, scarificators) or leeches could be applied.

Leeches (bloodsucking worm-like creatures) were attached and sucked blood
They can grow from a few mm long up to 20 cms.
Work by secreting an anaesthetic substance when they bite, so fairly painless, then secrete Hirudin an anti-coagulant to stop blood clotting.
Will feed for 20 minutes up to a few hours then fall off.
In 1830’s France imported 40,000,000 leeches to help combat diseases like cholera. In the 1840’s England imported 6,000,000 leeches from France to use here.

By the end of the 19th century they were falling out of favour, actual bloodletting being easier to do and also it was less popular.
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, in 1778 was subjected to bloodletting at the time of the birth of her first child ( and survived that bloodletting)
America’s first president, George Washington, was very ill and was subjected to a bloodletting but died soon after, with suspicion that too much had been removed.
King Charles II had a seizure and was prescribed bloodletting and he too died soon after with similar suspicions raised.
In 1163 The Church banned priests and monks from bloodletting because it ‘abhorred the practice’. Barbers then offered their services to the public who still thought bloodletting was good for them. Hence the start of ‘Barber Surgeons’.
The humble leech (Hirudinaria medicinalis) is still used nowadays but only in very specific situations, such as

Skin grafts and microsurgery, to relieve congestion, and thus promote healing.
Once used they cannot be used again in modern surgery because of the risk of transmitting infection.