ired spot with
the point of a sterilized needle, and the leech will then attach itself
without further trouble. Also they must be left to fall off of their own
accord, the nurse never dragging them forcibly off. If cold and pressure
fail to stop the subsequent haemorrhage, a little powdered alum or other
styptic may be inserted in the wound. The following are the main
indications for their use, though in some cases they are better replaced
by venesection, (1) For stagnation of blood on the right side of the
heart with constant dyspnoea, cyanosis, &c. In acute lung disease, the
sudden obstruction to the passage of blood through the lungs throws such
an increased strain on the right ventricle that it may dilate to the
verge of paralysis; but by lessening the total volume of blood, the
heart's work is lightened for a time, and the danger at the moment tided
over. This is a condition frequently met with in the early stages of
acute pneumonia, pleurisy and bronchitis, when the obstruction is in the
lungs, the heart being normal. But the same result is also met with as a
result of failure of compensation with back pressure in certain forms of
heart disease (q.v.). (2) To lower arterial tension. In the early stages
of cerebral haemorrhage (before coma has supervened), when the heart is
working vigorously and the tension of the pulse is high, a timely
venesection may lead to arrest of the haemorrhage by lowering the blood
pressure and so giving the blood in the ruptured vessel an opportunity
to coagulate. (3) In various convulsive attacks, as in acute uraemia.

BLOOD-MONEY, colloquially, the reward for betraying a criminal to
justice. More strictly it is used of the money-penalty paid in old days
by a murderer to the kinsfolk of his victim. These fines completely
protected the offender from the vengeance of the injured family. The
system was common among the Scandinavian and Teutonic races previous to
the introduction of Christianity, and a scale of payments, graduated
according to the heinousness of the crime, was fixed by laws, which
further settled who could exact the blood-money, and who were entitled
to share it. Homicide was not the only crime thus expiable: blood-money
could be exacted for all crimes of violence. Some acts, such as killing
any one in a church or while asleep, or within the precincts of the
royal palace, were "bot-less"; and the death penalty was inflicted. Such
a criminal was outlawed, and his enemi