Bedale Leech House | |
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The Leech House | |
General information | |
Type | Leech House |
Location | Bedale, North Yorkshire, England |
Coordinates | 54°17′21″N1°35′23″W / 54.289178°N 1.5895870°W |
Completed | 19th century |
Owner | Bedale Heritage Trust |
Height | 3.25m |
Dimensions | |
Diameter | 3.07m |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Designated | 25 September 1985 |
Reference no. | 1150909 |
This late Georgian Bedale Leech House in Bedale, North Yorkshire, England, is a unique example [1] of a building constructed to keep live medicinal leeches ( Hirudo medicinalis ) healthy prior to their sale by the local apothecary [2] to doctors and private individuals for the purpose of blood letting as a medical procedure to cure or prevent a variety of illnesses and diseases. [3]
The 'Leechery' is a small brick built and castellated structure, measuring 10.7 feet (3.25 m) by 10.1 feet (3.07 m), which stands on the bank of the Bedale Beck. [4] It was restored by the Bedale District Heritage Trust in 1985 and sits in a quarter of an acre of gardens known as the 'Bedale Renaissance Park' [5] with an information board that explains its history and significance. It was built by an apothecary on the estate of the Beresford-Peirse family of Bedale Hall in the late 18th or early 19th century [2] [6] [7] and was used for storing leeches until the early 1900s. [4]
The leeches were kept in special containers of moist turf and moss and a flow of fresh water from the Bedale Beck was diverted through the building. [8] A fireplace provided heat to ensure the containers and the leeches within did not freeze in winter. [4] Specialized and often very ornate 'Leech Jars' with a secure lid and small pierced air holes were used for the storage of leeches in the apothecary's shop. Feeding was not usually necessary as leeches can survive for lengthy periods, up to a year, between meals. [9]
The leeches were collected using either horses or, frequently, the legs of the leech collectors themselves. A leech was removed after it had taken a full meal of blood. [10] Bogs and marshes were the best collecting areas; the Lake District and Somerset Levels had particularly suitable sites. Women were particularly associated with collecting leeches and transporting them in small boxes or cages. [9] [11] It was not until 1835 that a method of breeding medicinal leeches was perfected in France; however, the British showed little interest in this, even though the native stocks were in decline or nearing extinction. [2]
At Bedale, George Thornton was the leech gatherer who was employed by Mr. Bellamy a local pharmacist or apothecary. [12] Special pewter boxes were developed into which the leeches were placed once sold. [9]
The use of leeches in medicine reached a peak between 1825 and 1850 to the point that supplies became scarce [13] and a secure place to store them before use became desirable. By the 1900s the use of leeches in medicine had dramatically declined and the Bedale Leech House ceased to be used for their storage, though it survived until its restoration in 1985. In the same year as its restoration, it was noted by Historic England as being a grade II listed building. [14]
The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret at 9a St Thomas Street is a museum of surgical history and one of the oldest surviving operating theatres. It is located in the garret of St Thomas's Church, Southwark, in London, on the original site of St Thomas' Hospital.
Hirudo medicinalis, or the European medicinal leech, is one of several species of leeches used as medicinal leeches.
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Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels.
A leech collector, leech gatherer, or leech finder was a person occupied with procuring medicinal leeches, which were in growing demand in 19th-century Europe. Leeches were used in bloodletting but were not easy for medical practitioners to obtain. The collector would sometimes gather the leeches by attracting them to the legs of animals, often old horses. More commonplace was for the collector to use their own legs, gathering the leech after it had finished sucking enough blood. Many in the profession suffered from the effects of the loss of blood and infections spread by the leeches.
Bedale Hall is a Grade I listed Palladian-style country house in the town of Bedale, North Yorkshire, England.
Hirudo verbana is a species of leech.
Hirudo is a genus of leeches of the family Hirudinidae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
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