THE BLOODSUCKER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13193, 2 June 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BLOODSUCKER.

PERIL OF DRINKING WATER AT Till'] WAYSIDE.

Warnings have been raised by a scientific writer, M. do ParvilJe, cays the Paris correspondent of the London Telegraph, as to the danger (if drinking brackish and unaltered water which may contain young or embryonic. leeche.i. t The danger is greater during the warm 'months, especially in Paris, where 'he water is very bad. Leeches, as M. de Parville reminds readers, are regularly swallowed by horses, oxen, sheep, and other animals, but these disgorge them after a time. The leech, on the other hand, has a fancy for sticking in men's throats and digestive organs. On this subject Dr. Mantel, of St. Omer, in the north of France, has published a pamphlet. He says that a few years ago he received a visit from a friend -of his, who lived for a time in Tunis. This person went out to Tunis a strong, energetic man, and a. few months afterwards he came back weak, worn, and thin, the shadow of his former self. The Tunis doctors had seen the man, as he had suddenly fallen ill in the place. They affirmed that lie was suffering from tuberculosis, of which, indeed, lie had all the symptoms. At St. Onier the. patient was examined by Doctor Mantel, who looked down his throat and saw what seemed to be a tumor at- the back of the pharynx. It was nearly as large as the thumb of a man's hand. The doctor washed the supposed tumor with water in which boric acid was put, and sent the patient- away until the following morning. When the man from Tunis returned to the doctor the latter again, looked down his throat and saw clearly that the tumor was a full-grown brown leech. The horrible blood-sucker was, as the doctor says, bloated after a meal. Dr. Mantel carefully removed the leech with an instrument, and the thing has been preserved in spirits. A few days after the operation the man from Tunis became _ quite cured, and is now himself again.' He be; lievfs that Ik drank the water containing the leech in an inn near the ruins of Ed Djem. That water was so bad that he had to mix coffee with it. ■■ Dr. Mantel-notes that this is the only case of the kind that lias come under his own observation, bub medical history is full of instances of leeches living in men* There have been sufferers like the man from Tunis among many colonial people and persons living in the ljropirs. Soldiers on the march are particularly liable ..to swallow small lurches, as they often in their great thirst drink eagerly ' of t'.ae first water 'that comes before them, 'careless whether it be pure and wholesome.or blackish and unclean.