Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/90

* LEE. Amstcrilani merchant, a conimeroial treaty which was indorsi'd hy the burgomaslur of Amstcr- daiii, and wliit-h later serveJ as a pretext for Knglaud"s declaration of war against Holland. In June, 1779, l^ee was recalled from his mis- sions, both of which had been unsuccessful. He oied at Green!>liring, V'a. Lee's diplomatic cor- respondence, together with a brief biographical sketch, may be found iu Wharton (ed.). The lieoolutiotiary Diplomatic Corrritpondence of the United Slatcii (Washington, 1889). LEE, William Little (1821-.i7). An Ameri- can lawyer. He was born at .Saudv Hill, N. Y.; studied "at Norwich I'niversity. M., and, after being superhilendcnt of a military academy at Portsmouth, Va., also at the Harvard Law School. His practice in Troy. N. V., was interrupted by threatening consumption, and in 1846 he started for Oregon by sea, but was delayed at Honolulu : undertook several suits for the Govcranicnt and was made Hawaiian Cliief .Justice and Chancellor. He drew up a new constitution and civil and criminal codes, and was ap|X)inted president of the commission which was to have charge of the land given up to the common jwople by the King and chiefs, a measure proposed by him. In 185.5 he went to the I'niU'd States, 'and negotiated a reciprocity treaty between that country and Hawaii. LEECH (AS. I(rce. leech, physician. Goth. Ukcis, UHC. lahhi, lachi, physician, from AS. lie, medicine, gift). . annelid of the order or class Hirudinea. divided into a number of groups, Hirudinida?, etc., some of which contain many species. They are mostly inhabitants of fresh waters, altlioiigh some live in grass, etc., in moist places, and some are marine. They are most common in warm climates. The body is soft, and composcil of segments (e.g. Pontobdel- la ) like that of the earthworm, but not fur- nished with bristles, except in one genus, to aid in progression as in the earth-worm; instead of which, a sucking-disk at each extremity enables the Iwch to avail itself of its power of elongating and shortening its body, by means of which it moves with considerable rapidity. The external rings (annuli) which show in the body-wall do not correspond to the inner segments, hut are much more numerous. While there are usually 33 segments, the number of rings may be more than 200. There are. at the middle of the body, 3. 5. 6. or 12 rings to each segment. The mouth is in the ant<>rior sucking-disk. The mouth of many of the species is admirably adapted not only for killing and eating the minute aquatic animals which constitute their ordinarr food, but. for making little wounds in the higher ani- mals, through which blood may be sucked. The mouth of the medicinal leecli has three small, white, hard phar^Tigeal teeth, minutely serrated along the edges, and cuned so as to form little semicircular saws, provided with muscles power- ful enough to work them with great efTect. and to produce a triradiate wound, i.e. three short, deep gashes, radiatine from a common centre, whence some of the rather fanciful names, such as drag- on-lefch. The stomach is very large, and is di- vided into compartments, some of which have large lateral cpca; and a leech which has once gorged itself with blood retains a store for a very long time, little changed, in these receptacles, while the digestive process goes .slowly on. The circulatory system consists of four great pulsat- JS LEECH. ing trunks— one dorsal, one ventral, and two lat- (.,.^1 — „ith their branches; there is no heart. 1 he blood system is in such close and intimate re- lation withthe body-cavity that it is dillicull to determine accurately the limits of each. Thi- aera- tion of the blood takes place in the skin, or rarely bv special outgrowths of the body-walls, which function as gills. I>cechcs are oviparous, and each individual is hermaphroditic, while in certain allied forms (Histriobdella, etc.) the sexes are distinct. The eggs are laid in sacs, or, as in Clepsine, the fish-leech, arc covered with a transparent Huid substance which hardens and envelops the eggs. ])evclo]imcnt is usualh- direct, and there is no metamorpliosis, the j-oimg being like the adult. When feeding the leeches pair and one impregnates the other by passing sper- matophores through the penis into the vagina. Simultaneous mutual fertilization has also been descriljed. They have small eyes (in the medici- nal leech ten), which apjiear as black spots on the dorsal side of the segments back of the moutli. These eves are verj* simple and seem to l)e merely modified .sense-papill.T. of which there are many arranged in longitudinal rows, the whole length of the body. I,*echcs varv much in size and color. Some species are less tlian half an inch long, while Macrohdelta valdriana is said to reach a length of two and a half feet. Some are very slender, while others are broad and very flat. The colors are usually dull gray, brown, dark green, and black. Leeches frequently change their skin; and one cause of the great mortality so often experienced among leeches kept for medicinal use is the want of aquatic plants in the vessels containing them, among which to rub themselves for aid in thi- ])rocess, and for getting quit of the slime which their skins exude. I.x'eeh aquaria in which aqua- tic plants grow are, therefore, much more favor- able for the health of leeches than the tanks an! vessels formerly in use. The medicinal leecli (Uirudo medicinnUx) is a European species, n rare native of Great Britain: leeches, however, are generally imported from Hamburg and from the south of Europe. The ancients were well ar- quaintcd with leeches, but their medicinal u- seems to have originated in the Jliddle -ges. Tlir horse-leech (Hwinopis .lani/tiisrirhn) is connnon in Great Britain; it is much larger than the medi- cinal species, but its teeth are comparatively blunt, and it is little of a blood-sucker, an. I useless for medicinal purposes. In many part- of India, as in the warm valleys of the Him alaya, the moist grass swarms with leeches. some of them very small, but very trouble- some to cattle and men who have occasion to walk through the grass. The moist valleys of Java. Sumatra. Chile, and other tropical countries swarm with land-leeches. Many species of leech are found in the United States, the most com- mon ones belonging to the genera Xephelis and Glossiphonia (better knowu as Clepsine). For a synopsis of the North American species, con- sult: Verrill. Inicrtehratc Animals of Vineyard Sound (Washington. 1874); IMoore. "The Leeches of the United States National Museum," in Proceedings of the United Klales Xational Mu- seum, vol. xxi. (Washington, 1898). LEECH, .John (1817-04). An English carica- turist. He was born in London, .-tigust 29. 1S17, and was educated at the Charterhovtse, where he formed his lifelong friendship with Thackeray.