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Jean-Baptiste Sarlandière's Mechanical Leeches (1817–1825): An Early Response in the Netherlands to a Shortage of Leeches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2012

Teunis Willem Van Heiningen
Teunis Willem Van Heiningen
Affiliation:
Teunis Willem van Heiningen, MSc, PhD, Diepenbrocklaan 11, 7582 CX, Losser, The Netherlands, e-mail: heinluit@hetnet.nl
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Type
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Information
Medical History , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 253 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2009. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

1Initially Hirudo medicinalis (or “German Leech”) and Hirudo officinalis (or “Hungarian Leech”) were used.

2Roy T Sawyer, ‘The trade in medicinal leeches in the Southern Indian Ocean in the nineteenth century', Med. Hist.,1999, 43: 241–5.

3Algemeene Konst- en Letterbode, Haarlem, Loosjes, 1825, 2: 158.

4For similar advice, see, for example, J L Derheims, Histoire naturelle et médicale des sangsues, contenant la description anatomique des organes de la sangsue officinale…, Paris, J-B Baillière, 1825, pp. 155–65; Joseph Martin, Histoire pratique des sangsues; organisation de ces animaux, espèces et variétés, etc., Paris, Panckoucke, 1845, pp. 29–47, 51, 67–87, 99; Louis Vayson, Guide pratique des éleveurs de sangsues, Paris, J-B Baillière, 1852, pp. 128–38. It refers to Bulletin de l'Académie de Médecine de Paris, February 1848, pp. 613ff. On p. 660 the conclusions of a report on an investigation regarding the shortage of leeches are given. These conclusions were accepted unanimously.

5Martinus van Marum (1750–1837), renowned physicist, chemist and botanist, Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and of several other learned societies; in 1794 he was made secretary for life of the Dutch Society of Sciences, and he was Director of Teylers Museum (Haarlem).

6In his brochure on the bdellomèttre (1819) Sarlandière explains: “βδɛλλω” means “I inhale” and “µɛτρον” means “to measure”; Vivian Nutton tells me that : “βδɛλλα” or “βδɛλλοη” means “leech”.

7François Magendie (1783–1855), anatomist, pioneer in experimental (neuro)physiology, held the chair of medicine at the Collège de France (Paris) from 1830 to 1855.

8Jean-Baptiste Sarlandière, Mémoires sur l'électro-puncture, considéré comme moyen nouveau de traiter efficacement la goutte, les rhumatismes et les affections nerveuses, et sur l'emploi du moxa japonais en France; suivi d'un traité de l'acupuncture et du moxa, Paris, J-B Sarlandière et Mlle Delaunay, 1825; Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker, Berlin and Vienna, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1929–1935, vol. 5, pp. 23–4.

9Jean-Baptiste Sarlandière, Bdellomètre du Docteur Sarlandière, Paris, Firmin Didot le jeune, 1819.

10François Joseph Victor Broussais (1772–1838). Marie-Luce Jardin, Les Thérapies par les sangsues: les pratiques les plus anciennes aux traitements actuels hautement scientifiques, Université de Franche-Comté, Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie de Besançon, 2005, Thèse, pp. 32–3.

11G Canguilhem, Idéologie et rationalité dans l'histoire des sciences de la vie, Paris, J Vrin, 1977, pp. 60–1.

12Sarlandière made his first arrangements with Louis-Joseph Dumotiez and his brother Pierre-François Dumotiez, physical instument makers and “ingénieurs de l'Académie Royale de Médecine” (Paris).

13Sarlandière, op. cit., note 9 above, ‘Pièces justificatives’, p. 17: this is not the same Bernard as that mentioned in note 37; for the increasing demand of leeches in North America, see Stephen L Adams, ‘The medical leech: historical perspectives', Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis, 1989, 15 (3): 261–4. The practice of bloodletting increased in popularity from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s and so did the use of leeches. At one time it was estimated that the United States imported many millions annually from Europe for medical purposes; John C Hartnett, ‘The care and use of medicinal leeches’, Pharmacy in History, 1972, 14: 127–38. In 1833, physicians in Philadelphia used leeches caught locally, while New York and Boston importers supplied pharmacists with foreign leeches.

14Pierre Lortet (1792–1868), physician and politician; from 1836 he held the position of governor of the hospitals of Lyons.

15In 1815 Nicolas-Constant Pixi-Dumotiez (1776–1861) took over the firm owned by his uncles.

16Antoine-Pierre Demours (1762–1836) was an anatomist, surgeon and leading ophthalmologist in Paris. He was the son of Pierre Demours (1702–1795), ophthalmologist (Paris).

17Sarlandière, op. cit., note 9 above, ‘Pièces justificatives', p. 19.

18Ibid., pp. 15, 17; Antonius Gerardus van Onsenoort, Operatieve Heelkunde, 2nd ed., Amsterdam, 1836–1837 (first edition, 1822), vol. 1 p. 171. Van Onsenoort (1782–1841) had a career in military medicine. In 1811 he was appointed surgeon-major in the French southern army. He became surgeon at the military hospital of Leuven (Belgium) in 1815, and, in 1817, first officer of the military Health Service of the Netherlands (Leuven). He taught theoretical and practical surgery and ophthalmology, and ended his career teaching at the Central Military Hospital of Utrecht.

19Sarlandière, op. cit., note 9 above, ‘Avertissement’, p. 21.

20Rapport du jury d'admission des produits de l'industrie du Département de la Seine a` l'Exposition du Louvre, Paris, 1819, pp. 195 ff. It was numbered 1122.

21Jean-Baptiste Etienne Benoît Olive Regnault (1759–1836), chief physician at the Royal Hospital and personal physician to Louis XVIII.

22Sigismond Rohmer, Notice sur l'emploi des ventouses; en Allemagne et dans les Départemens François limitrophes de ce pays; … présentée a` l'Académie Royale de Médecine, Paris, Auguste Mie, s.d.; see also L Ch Roche and L J Sanson, Nouveaux éléments de pathologie médico-chirurgicale ou Précis théorique et pratique de médecine et de chirurgie, 4 vols, Paris, J-B Baillière, 1825–1828. They state that the instruments designed by Demours and Sarlandière are almost identical, although Sarlandière's largest version of the bdellomètre is provided with a third cylindrical tube, with a tap near the lower margin of the cup, which is needed for discharging the blood. In the view of Roche and Sanson this instrument will not work because, in order to evacuate the blood, air has to be let in, which is impossible, taking into account that the ventouse is almost filled with blood. Besides the cup will come loose as soon as the air starts to enter into it. It would be much more practical to take it off the skin. So in no way should one prefer the bdellome`tre to the common ventouse. For that reason most physicians in France prefer common cups to Sarlandière's instruments if leeches are not available.

23Alexis Boyer (1757–1833), professor of pathology at the Faculté de Médecine of Paris and professor of surgery at the Hôpital de la Charité; member of the Académie de Médecine and of the Institut de France. Boyer served Napoléon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis-Philippe.

24L Heister, Heelkundige Onderwyzingen, waarin alles wat ter heling en genezing der uiterlyke gebreken behoort, 2 vols, Amsterdam, De Groot, 1755, vol. 2, pp. 1198–203.

25B Haeseker, ‘Forerunners of mesh grafting machines: from cupping glasses and scarificators to modern mesh graft instruments’, Br. J. Plastic Surg., 1989, 41 (2): 209–12.

26Heister, op. cit., note 24 above, vol. 2, table 3, figure 5.

27Eduard A Graefe, Dr. Sarlandière's Beschreibung eines neuen Blutsaugers, Berlin, Reimer, 1820.

28J Weiss, An account of inventions and improvements in surgical instruments, made by John Weiss, London, Longman, Reese, Orme, Brown & Green, 1831, pp. 12–13, 146–7, 168–9.

29N P Adelon, et al., Dictionnaire de médecine, ou Répertoire général des sciences médicales, considérées sous le rapport théorique et pratique, 30 vols, 2nd ed., Paris, Béchet, 1844, vol. 28, pp. 125–35.

30Noord-Hollands Archief (Haarlem, The Netherlands), Archives of the Dutch Society of Sciences, NHA HMW 444-421.245; J G de Bruijn, Inventaris van de prijsvragen, uitgeschreven door de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, 1753–1917, Haarlem, Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, Groningen, H D Tjeenk Willink, 1977, pp. 170–1.

31Pieter Arnoldus van den Berg was a surgeon and midwife in the town of Oudewater, The Netherlands.

32NHA HMW 444-421.245. Réponse a` la question proposée par la Société hollandaise des sciences de Harlem, pour 1825: “L'instrument, pour suppléer au défaut des sangsues, inventé par le Docteur Sarlandière et nommé Bdellomètre, est-il porté au plus haut degrée de perfection et d'utilité? Quels en sont encore les défauts? Comment pourrait-on les prévenir, ou comment pourraient-ils être évités au moyen d'une meilleure construction?”, manuscript (J-B Sarlandière), Paris, 1825, p. 4.

33NHA HMW 444-16: Notulenboek 1819–1839, p. 2242.

34NHA HMW 444-421.245 R: H van den Bosch (Rotterdam) to M van Marum (Haarlem), 13 Feb. 1825.

35Albertus van Calcar, Dissertatio medico inauguralis de hirudinis historia naturalis et uso medico, Leiden, L Herdingh et Filum, 1823.

36Van Onsenoort, op. cit., note 18 above, vol. 1, p. 171.

37NHA HMW 444-421.245 R: J Ch B Bernard (Brussels) to M van Marum (Haarlem), 14 April 1825.

38NHA HMW 444-421.245 R: J Logger (Leiden) to M van Marum (Haarlem), early spring 1825.

39Of course, the author was ignorant of the background of this phenomenon, i.e. its biochemical basis: the existence and nature of substances like heparin and hirudin.

40J Frédérik Montain, the elder, Des effets des différentes espèces d'évacuations sanguines artificielles (mémoire auquel la Société de Médecine de Bordeaux a décerné un médaille d'or dans sa séance publique du 30 aou^t 1809, Lyons, J-M Barret, 1810, pp. 30–4: “Il seroit donc ridicule de penser, avec le crédule vulgaire, que les sangsues ont l'instinct de choisir le mauvais sang et de laisser celui qui est de bonne qualité; ces animaux n'ont pas d'autre instinct que l'envie de contenter leur avidité sanguinaire. L'irritation qui coincide avec l'issue du sang, ne peut être comparée a` celle qui est produite par l'incision de l'instrument piquant et tranchant sur la peau, et le tissu membraneux des vaisseaux arteriels et veineux.”

41NHA HMW 444-16: Notulenboek 1819–1839, pp. 2252–253, 2260.

42NHA HMW 444-16: Notulenboek 1819–1839, pp. 2260, 2269, etc.

431 pouce (eighteenth century, French) measures 2.71cm, while 1 inch measures 2.54cm. 1 pouce measures 10 lignes.

44Graefe, op. cit., note 27 above, p. 210; NHA HMW 444-429.324 R.

45G C B Suringar, Geschied- en oordeelkundige verhaldeling over het leerstelsel van … Broussais, Amsterdam, G C Sulpke, 1829, pp. 12–35; G A Lindeboom, ‘De leer van Broussais in Nederland’, Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, 1955, 99: 955–63, 1240–5; See also Biographisches Lexicon der hervorragenden Aerzte, op. cit., note 8 above, vol. 1, pp. 616–17.

46C G Ontyd, ‘Proeve over den tegenwoordigen staat der geneeskunst', in Nieuwe Verhandelingen der Eerste Klasse van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten, 13 vols, Amsterdam, C G Sulpke, 1838, vol. 7, pp. 47–128.

47Jean Devèze (1746–1826) studied medicine in Bordeaux and Paris, and served as a physician in Santo Domingo, where he founded a hospital. In 1793 Devèze fled to Philadelphia, where he witnessed the yellow fever epidemic of that year and wrote a book on it. In 1804 he took his doctoral degree with a second version of his book, entitled Sur la fièvre jaune. Antoine Dalmas (1757–1830) was a naval physician, serving in several regions where yellow fever epidemics were frequent. He was the author of Recherches historiques et médicales sur la fièvre jaune, Paris, Marchant, 1805. He died in the United States. Jean-André Rochoux (1787–1852) was a member of the Section Médicale de l'Encyclopédie Méthodique. In 1821 he was appointed member of the Committee for the investigation of the yellow fever epidemic in Barcelona. Rochoux served as a physician at the Infirmerie de Bicêtre in Paris. He was a member of the Académie Royale de Médecine.

48A P I Polinière, Etudes cliniques sur les émissions sanguines artificielles, 2 vols, Paris, Baillière, 1827, vol. 1, pp. 168–9, 405. A physician, Polinière was appointed director of the Charité at Lyons. In 1826, the Société Académique de Marseille presented him with a prize for this book.