Sanguisuga

Hirudo or Sanguisuga officinalis. The Leech. N. O. Hirudineæ. Tincture of the living animal.

Clinical

Anus, bleeding from / Hæmorrhages

Characteristics

Burnett was the first to use Sanguisuga as a homœopathic medicine. Dangerous hæmorrhages have not unfrequently followed the application of leeches, and it has been ascertained that the leech does not merely bite, it poisons the bitten part in such a way as to render the blood in it watery. Having a case of persistent bleeding from the rectum, the blood being watery, and all the usual hæmorrhagic remedies having failed to arrest it, Burnett thought that Sanguisuga might prove the simillimum. He had a tincture made and attenuated, gave the 5th attenuation, and made a brilliant cure. I have had frequent opportunity of confirming the value of Sngs. in cases of the kind.