October
12
/ 2023
When it comes to historical jobs that will make your skin crawl, leech collecting certainly tops the list. While today, leeches might be an oddity or a relic of ancient medicine, they were once essential in treatments spanning various ailments. Tracing its roots back to ancient Egyptian medicine, the little bloodsuckers were seen as a crucial element in the medical world. A Gory Gathering: The Life of a Leech Collector If you happened to live in the 1700s or 1800s and were engaged in the profession of leech collecting, your daily tasks would have been, to put it lightly, blood-curdling. Tasked with procuring leeches for medical purposes, these gatherers sought these slippery creatures from their murky habitats: bogs, marshes, and
