We have a photo slideshow of leech therapy at some hospital. Now, I know leeches have been used in medicine for centuries, but I keep wondering who was the first guy to try them? And how drunk was he?

Ernie: I’ve got an awful pain in my mouth that just won’t go away!

Pete: Maybe you should hang one of these vile, disgusting,  blood-sucking leeches in your mouth! That might do some good!

Ernie! Ya know, I think I’m just hammered enough to try that! What could it hurt?

I made up that little exchange, but it probably isn’t far from the truth. Historians say many things we take for granted were first discovered by really dumb drunk guys with nothing to lose. Watch this, and thank Ernie and Pete. They took chances, so you don’t have to.

A leech hangs from the face of a Kashmiri patient Abdul Ahad, who suffers partial blindness, during a leech therapy session inside a hospital in Srinagar May 2, 2008. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli

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