19-06-2025
Richard Collins: Leeches suck — which can be handy at times
We are the things that others fear — Anne Rice, The Vampire Chronicles
Napoleon was 'a martyr to the piles'. Swollen veins in his 'back-passage' may have denied him victory at Waterloo 210 years ago this month. Martyn Linnie, in his Unnatural History of Animals , just published, devotes a chapter to the great emperor's anal challenge... and the creepy-crawlies which supported him on the fateful day.
Bonaparte delayed the start of the famous battle. Hostilities should have commenced at 6am but it was almost noon when they got underway. Was the Emperor waiting for the weather to improve, or did he just feel unwell? He had suffered a severe attack of piles the previous day. Did thrombosed haemorrhoids render mounting his horse too painful? Was he therefore unable to ride out and study the lie of the land as he always did prior to a battle?
It was believed, back then, that illness resulted from imbalances in the body's 'humours'. Blood levels had to be kept in harmony with those of the other bodily fluids. To restore equilibrium a patient was 'bled'. Although this had been an accepted medical technique for 2,000 years, it usually did more harm than good. Blood-flow could be difficult to control during, or following, surgery. Using leeches to suck out blood reduced the risk of haemorrhage.
His military surgeon thought that the swelling in the great man's rectal veins needed to be reduced, so an emergency response team of crack medicinal leeches was called in. Twenty-five of the saviours were applied to the imperial perineum on the day preceding the battle.
The leech, related to the earthworm, has a sucker at its rear end with which it propels itself through water and locks onto a host. The proboscis, up front, has sharp tooth-like appendages, which seek out exposed flesh and make an incision. A Dracula-style blood-sucking orgy follows. Leech saliva contains anaesthetics, anticoagulants and substances to increase blood-flow. The parasite can stay in place for days in a passionate embrace with its host, gorging itself until its swollen body can't take in any more.
Trekking in the jungles of Borneo, many years ago, I tried exchanging body fluids with a leech. These blood-suckers were a notorious pest there. Oddly, however, none of them latched on to my calves or thighs. Prime Irish blood, it seemed, was not to their liking. I put one of them on the soft underside of my arm, hoping to see it perform. But, alas, to no avail — 'he was despised, despised and rejected'. There are many species of leech. Had I picked a benign one?
The Unnatural History of Animals: Tales from a Zoological Museum by Martyn Linnie
Ireland, according to Dr Martyn Linnie, was the first country in Europe in which, through over-exploitation, the medicinal leech became extinct. We still have another dozen or so freshwater species here and some salt-water ones as well. None is harmful to humans. Leeches, with their rich biochemical armoury, still play a role in surgery. A protected species in Europe, they are reared now on leech farms.
If Napoleon had won the crucial battle, would we be celebrating the pivotal contribution a humble creepy-crawly made to European history?
