leech (1), leche

[A. S. læce =a physician; lacnian to cure; cogn. with Icel. læknir phys i. cian; lækna =to cure; Dan. læge a physician; læge =to heal; Sw. läkare a physician; läka =to heal; Goth. leikeis, leke is a physician; leikinon = to heal; O. H. Ger. láhhi, láchia physician; lahhinón to heal; M. H. Ger. láchenen to use remedies; láchen a remedy: Ir. & Gael. leigh =a physician; leigheas a cure. Once the general English appellation for a physician. After it became obsolete in England it was still retained by the inhabitants within the Irish pale. lish Past and Present.)] ( Trench : Eng *I. Ord. Lang .: A physician, a doctor; a profe or of the art of healing. II. Technically: 1. Zoology: (1) Sing .: Any individual of the suctorial order Hirudinea, of which the best known examples are the horseleech (q. v.), and the medicinal leech, under IMG:content-0462.png:[ocr errors] which name two species ar are commonly employed: Hirudo medicinal is , chiefly imported from Germany, Bohemia, and Ru ia; and the Hungarian leech ( H. a officinal is). Greenish-olive to dark green, six yellow reddish or yellow bands along the back; numerous black spots on abdomen. The body is composed of from 90 to 100 rings, and furnished with a discal and caudal sucker. The anterior sucker is small, the mouth furnished with three semicircular toothed jaws, meeting in a point. Leeches grow very slowly, and some years elapse before they ar Sucker and Jaw of Leech. a. Anterior extremity of Hirudo officinal is, magnified, showing the sucker and triradiate jaws. b. One of the jaws detached, showing the semicircular toothed margin. rive at maturity. They are not fit for medical purposes before the age of twelve or eighteen months. They inhabit pools and marshy places; and in the south of France they are bred in large marshes chiefly for the continental market. chin, bench; go, gem; thin, this; leech-lines, the preventer leech-line. leech-rope, s. Naut .: That part of a bolt-rope along the vertical edge of a sail. The leeches are hauled by leech lines, which pa up through blocks on the yards, and brail up the sail. *leēçh (1), *leche, v. t. & i. (LEECH (1) 8.] A. Transitive: 1. To treat with medicine; to heal, to cure. 2. To bleed by the use of leeches. B. Intransitive: 1. To practice medicine. 2. To bleed with leeches.