A leech, also called a bloodsucker, is a worm-like creature. Hundreds of varieties are found especially in tropical countries. They range from 3/4-inch to 18 inches long and can stretch or shorten their bodies. Most are black, brown or gray, with lighter stripes. The horse leech is dark green. Suckers on both ends of their bodies enable them to move as some caterpillars do - the front end holding firm while the back end pushes the body forward in a loop. Then the front end lets loose and moves forward as the body drops down flat. This is done over and over until the leech reaches its goal.
The leech’s usual food is the blood of fish, frogs, worms and snails and some animals like pigs or cows. The wound it makes when attaching to its victim is not painful. When its sharp little teeth puncture the victim’s skin, a pain-killing chemical comes out of its mouth. A thirsty leech sucking blood for a long time may swell up to three times its normal size. If not removed, half a dozen of them all working on a small animal, like a puppy, could take so much blood that in a short time it could die.
How does the leech attach itself to a victim? In water it slowly swims to a sleeping fish or other creature and attaches itself so gently that the victim is not aware anything is going on. In wooded or bushy areas, particularly where forests have frequent rain, great numbers of leeches crawl a short way up tree trunks or tall bushes and rest on moist leaves until an animal, or even a bare-backed person, walks below them. At just the right moment they slide off the leaf and drop so gently that the target doesn’t know what has taken place. How would you like to walk through a place like that?
In times past before modern medical treatments were available for sick people, doctors kept a number of leeches available. They thought many illnesses were due to something wrong in the blood. They used the leeches to remove blood from the sick person. Most people didn’t know any better either, and probably often asked for that kind of treatment.
It is rare to find a doctor doing that today. But in some places medical science uses leeches to study blood and the treatment of it in a modern way.
We may wonder why the Creator ever made such things as leeches, but we do know that they are a part of His creation, to which the opening Bible verse refers. Let us also remember another Bible verse that tells us, “For by Him were all things created. . . . All things were created by Him, and for Him.” Colossians 1:1616For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1:16). How good of God to give us such a clear explanation of creation. Man has come up with his own ideas, but God’s Word is the truth.
ML-01/10/1993