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From today's featured articleHirudo medicinalis sucking blood Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms of the subclass Hirudinea in the phylum Annelida. Like earthworms, they have soft, muscular, segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract, but the coelom, the body cavity that can be spacious in other annelids, is reduced to small channels, and they typically have suckers at both ends. Most leeches live in freshwater habitats, though some species can be found in terrestrial and marine environments. A minority of leech species prey on small invertebrates, but most are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood. They were used in medicine from ancient times until the 19th century to draw blood from patients. In modern times, leeches have been used in microsurgery and in the treatment of extremity vein diseases and joint diseases such as epicondylitis and osteoarthritis. Hirudin, an anticoagulant drug they secrete, has been used to treat blood-clotting disorders. (Full article...)
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Mattie Edwards Hewitt (1869–1956) was an American photographer of architecture, landscape, and design. In 1901, she met Frances Benjamin Johnston, already an established photographer, and started a correspondence with her; she moved to New York to work and live with Johnston in 1909. They established a firm called the Johnston–Hewitt Studio in New York City, with Johnston working as the photographer while Hewitt was the darkroom assistant. Their partnership broke up in 1917, after which Hewitt set up a commercial photography studio of her own, taking pictures for designers and architects, and recording interior and exterior views of homes, commercial premises, and gardens, primarily on the East Coast. This photograph of Hewitt was taken by Johnston. Photograph credit: Frances Benjamin Johnston; restored by Adam Cuerden
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