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A leech collector, leech gatherer, or leech finder was a person occupied with procuring medicinal leeches, which were in growing demand in 19th-century Europe. Leeches were used in bloodletting but were not easy for medical practitioners to obtain. The collector would sometimes gather the leeches by attracting them to the legs of animals, often old horses. More commonplace was for the collector to use their own legs, gathering the leech after it had finished sucking enough blood. Many in the profession suffered from the effects of the loss of blood and infections spread by the leeches.〔(Leech collectors ), Science Museum. Accessed 2 September 2011.〕 Leech collectors were active across the United Kingdom, with bogs and marshes being the best hunting ground. The Lake District and Somerset Levels had particularly suitable sites. They were described by artist George Walker in his 1814 book ''The Costume of Yorkshire'' as being predominately Scottish women.〔Robinson, Tony. ''The Worst Jobs in History''. Pan. ISBN 0-330-43857-3 p.54–56.〕 The career was seasonal; leech collectors could not work in the colder months because the leeches would not be particularly active.〔 There are obvious negative effects of being repeatedly bitten by leeches, most commonly the significant and dangerous levels of blood loss. The leeches would suck on the legs of the collector for 20 minutes or more, and even when they had finished the resultant wound continued to bleed for up to ten hours.〔 Leech collectors were not well paid. William Wordsworth's poem ''Resolution and Independence'', written in 1802 and published in 1807, was inspired by an encounter Wordsworth had with a "leech-gatherer".〔Wordsworth, Dorothy. ''The Grasmere Journals''. Edited by Pamela Woof. Oxford University Press, 1991.〕 In Stanza XV he describes the hardships that the old, poor leech collector had endured: Parts of the poem have been interpreted as drawing similarities between leech collectors and poets,〔(Wordsworth's Poetry ). SparkNotes. Accessed 2 September 2011.〕 comparing the difficulties of finding leeches with the struggle to write poetry.〔Durrant, Geoffrey. ''William Wordsworth''. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07608-0. 1 September 1969. p. 95〕 The old man in the story is said to "have wisdom and fortitude that can elevate the wiser poet".〔Moore, Pamela. (Wordsworth, William - Resolution and Independence ). Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database, New York University. 7 May 2001. Accessed 2 September 2011.〕 ==Decline== ''Hirudo medicinalis'', the only species of leech in Britain that can suck human blood,〔(Medicinal Leech (Hirudo medicinalis) In the Romney Marsh Natural Area ). Romney Marsh Countryside Project. Accessed 2 September 2011.〕 is identified as being "Near Threatened" by the IUCN. Their decline dates back to the time of the collectors and Wordsworth refers to the fall in their numbers in ''Resolution and Independence'' Stanza XVIII: The collection of leeches became a sizeable industry by the mid-19th century: 30 million were exported from Germany to America annually and French imports of ''H. medicinalis'' in 1833 were in the region of 42 million. By the turn of the 20th century ''H. medicinalis'' had disappeared from most of Europe and was declared extinct in the British Isles, but they were rediscovered in parts of Great Britain from 1970 onwards. The dramatic drop in numbers was blamed partly on the over-collection of the species but also on the dramatic reduction of their habitat. The largest population currently in Britain is believed to reside in the Romney Marsh.〔 The leech collecting industry also declined as the medicinal value of using leeches was questioned. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Leech collector」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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