Hirudin hirudin. Hirudin Hirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of blood-sucking leeches (such as "Hirudo medicinalis") that has a blood anticoagulant property. This is fundamental for the leeches’ alimentary habit of hematophagy, since it keeps the blood flowing after the initial phlebotomy performed by the worm on the host’s skin. During his years in Birmingham and Edinburgh, John Berry Haycraft had been actively engaged in research and published papers on the coagulation of blood, and in 1884, he discovered that the leech secreted a powerful anticoagulant, which he named hirudin, although it was not isolated until the
Ciaccio's glands Ciaccio's glands Ciaccio's glands or Wolfring's glands are small tubular accessory lacrimal glands ("glandulae lacrimales accessoriae") found in the lacrimal caruncle of the eyelid. They are located in the upper border of the tarsus, approximately in the middle between the extremities of the tarsal glands. Sometimes they are situated slightly above the tarsus. There are usually 2 to 5 of these glands in the upper eyelid, and their function is to produce tears which are secreted onto the surface of the conjunctiva. They are named after Italian anatomist Giuseppe Vincenzo Ciaccio (1824–1901), who described these glands in 1874. They are