It's Always More Complicated

Over the years, my dearios, I have devoted a certain number of posts to the humble medicinal leech, both in its legit medical uses, and its deployment in woowoo hirudotherapy.

I have even mentioned that this humble creature was so in demand that by the nineteenth century British stocks were in massive decline and leeches were imported from Furrin Parts (I had to referee a paper on this once.)

But now, the leech! is making! A COMEBACK!!!

Medicinal leeches poised for comeback in Scottish Highlands: Project aims to release hundreds into lochs and streams after centuries of habitat loss and exploitation

Shock horror: I discover from that article that the Welsh leech farm that provides them for modern medicinal uses, supplies a non-native species: 'a Mediterranean variety, Hirudo verbana'. As

Hirudo medicinalis are legally protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act due to their scarcity, making it unlawful to harvest them without special permission, ruling them out for medical use.

But talking of parasitic practices: King’s estate collecting assets of the dead is ‘bizarre feudal remnant’, says Andy Burnham. O for the pens of the Georgian caricaturists.