Cops catch a strange Man At Toronto Airport and are surprised even more by the contents of his bag

Sebastian Kvist

As soon as the sample reached the experts, Sebastian Kvist a curator of invertebrate zoology at the Royal Ontario Museum identified the creatures as Hirudo verbana. He further told the authorities that it is used for medical purposes.

Medical Purposes

The experts added that while many types of leeches are used for medical purposes, but the thing that made this breed of leech so different from the others was the fact that it was an endangered species.

A Very Old Practice

It is not the first time that this species of leech was being used for medical purposes, it is being used for centuries for curing various serious diseases. The earliest proofs of leeches being used in medical purposes can be found in the notes of Indian physicians Charaka and Sushruta from the 8th century.

2nd Century

It was in the 2nd century that the medical leches made their way to the Western world and it was a Greco-Roman physician Galen that made them so popular. The practice of bleeding the patients was favored by him and was very well received by everyone and because this practice was becoming so common, the physicians were often called by the name ‘leeches’.

Preventing Infections

And very soon for preventing infections and treating illnesses around the world, bloodletting became a standard procedure and it was places like Eastern Europe and the Americas where this practice became a prominent technique.

Stats

If we are to believe the stories that surrounded these facts than in the 19th century, almost 6 million leeches were used and a total of 300,000 liters of blood was drawn from the patients and this stat is only for Paris.