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Showing posts with the label patterns

Medieval Medicine Trending- Leeches Are Sucking Back!

Poison & Crochet Leeches Jars Thought it was time for a more crochet centred post as I seem to have been distracted my lovely summer events and activities recently (I'm not sorry). This morning I was inspired by this story on BBC Wales www.bbc.co.uk/Medicinal leech farming making a comeback in Wales Istanbul Leeches Apparently,"leech-farming is back in Wales... the 60,000 leeches a year they provide for hospitals throughout Europe make Swansea's Biopharm the biggest suppliers of leeches in the UK." Long associated with quack medicine, they actually introduce a powerful anticoagulant chemical into blood making them "perfect for microsurgery, particularly when severed fingers or toes have been reattached".  So far, my only sighting of real leeches was an odd spin on the imagined old glass bottled leeches (previously available in all good old apothecaries). I spotted a large plastic drum (a recycled water cooler I suspected) of leeches for hi...