Fish, used as an aliment, it is generally thought, make blood. The polyp,[345] bruised and applied, arrests hæmorrhage, it is thought: in addition to which we find stated the following particulars respecting it—that of itself it emits a sort of brine, in consequence of which, there is no necessity to use any in cooking it—that it should always be sliced with a reed—and that it is spoilt by using an iron knife, becoming tainted thereby, owing to the antipathy[346] which naturally exists [between it and iron]. For the purpose also of arresting hæmorrhage, ashes of burnt frogs are applied topically, or else the dried blood of those animals. Some authorities recommend the frog to be used, that is known by the Greeks as “calamites,”[347] from the fact that it lives among reeds[348] and shrubs; it is the smallest and greenest of all the frogs, and either the blood or the ashes of it are recommended to be employed. Others, again, prescribe, in cases of bleeding at the nostrils, an injection of the ashes of young water-frogs, in the tadpole state, calcined in a new earthen vessel. On the other hand, again, in cases where it is required to let blood, the kind of leech is used which is known among us by the name of “sanguisuga.[349]” Indeed, the action of these leeches is looked upon as pretty much the same as that of the cupping-glasses[350] used in medicine, their effect being to relieve the body of superfluous blood, and to open the pores of the skin. Still, however, there is this inconvenience attending them—when they have been once applied, they create a necessity[351] for having recourse to the same treatment at about the same period in every succeeding year. Many physicians have been of opinion also, that leeches may be successfully applied in cases of gout. When gorged, they fall off in consequence of losing their hold through the weight of the blood, but if not, they must be sprinkled with salt[352] for the purpose. Leeches are apt, however, to leave their heads buried in the flesh; the consequence of which is an incurable wound, which has caused death in many cases, that of Messalinus,[353] for example, a patrician of consular rank, after an application of leeches to his knee. When this is the case, that which was intended as a remedy is turned into an active poison;[354] a result which is to be apprehended in using the red leeches more particularly. Hence it is that when these last are employed, it is the practice to snip them with a pair of scissors while sucking; the consequence of which is, that the blood oozes forth, through a siphon, as it were, and the head, gradually contracting as the animal dies, is not left behind in the wound. There is a natural antipathy[355] existing between leeches and bugs, and hence it is that the latter are killed by the aid of a fumigation made with leeches. Ashes of beaver-skin burnt with tar, kneaded up with leek-juice, arrest bleeding at the nostrils.