New Hampshire Statesman And State Journal

Swallowing a Leech. At San Antonio de Bexar, a circumstance occurred which may be useful for those to know who may serve in hot countries. A soldier had suffered from bleeding for several days, in considerable quantity, from the mouth, which was perpetual; some was spit out with a little cough, some was swallowed, and neither medicine nor treatment seemed to have any effect upon him. He became greatly emaciated, his death appeared to be inevitably at hand, although I could not discover any particular disease about him. On visiting the hospital early in the morning, I enquired if he was dead, and was astonished at being told he had been quite well for two hours, and intended to live, for that he had coughed up a leech, and the cause of the bleeding, inasmuch as it had ceased from the moment. The man rapidly recovered. I was quite aware that in warm countries, in which leeches prevail, they are readily taken up by men and horses in drinking out of puddles; as thirsty animals, whether bipeds or quadrupeds, constantly do. They are usually what are called horse leeches, or of that kind which hold on and suck at one end, and discharge the blood at the other; but they commonly stick about the lips, mouth or throat, both in men and horses, from whence they are readily removed by the finger or forceps. When they get above or behind the palate, they are still usually discovered with a little trouble; and when they could not, I have never found much difficulty in dislodging them with strong salt and water injected through the nose, which, by its own virtue, and that of vomiting, has the desired effect. Whether this leech was in that situation or not, I do not know, but it certainly did all but kill the man.

Guthrie's Clinical Lectures.