Vescicating Insects 
55 
While blister beetles have been especially used for external applica¬ 
tion, they are also at times used internally as a stimulant and a 
diuretic. The powder or extract was formerly much in vogue as an 
aphrodisiac, and formed the essential constituent of various philters, 
or “love powders”. It is now known that its effects on the reproduc¬ 
tive organs appear primarily after the kidneys have been affected to 
such an extent as to endanger life, and that many cases of fatal poison 
have been due to its ignorant use. 
There are many cases on record of poisoning and death due to 
internal use, and in some instances from merely external application. 
There are not rarely cases of poisoning of cattle from feeding on 
herbage bearing a large number of the beetles and authentic cases are 
known of human beings who have been poisoned by eating the flesh 
of such cattle. Robert states that the beetles are not poisonous to 
birds but that the flesh of birds which have fed on them is poisonous 
to man, and that if the flesh of chickens or frogs which have fed on 
the cantharidin be fed to cats it causes in them the same symptoms 
as does the cantharidin. 
Treatment of cases of cantharidin poison is a matter for a skilled 
physician. Until he can be obtained, emetics should be administered 
and these should be followed by white of egg in water. Oils should 
be avoided, as they hasten the absorption of the poison. 
Other Cryptotoxic Insects —Though the blister beetles are the 
best known of the insects with poisonous blood plasma, various 
others have been reported and we shall refer to a few of the best 
authenticated. 
One of the most famous is the Chrysomelid beetle, Diamphidia 
simplex , the bod) 7 fluids of whose larvae are used by certain South 
African bushmen as an arrow poison. Its action is due to the presence 
of a toxalbumin which exerts a haemolytic action on the blood, and 
produces inflammation of the subcutaneous connective tissue and 
mucous membranes. Death results from general paralysis. Krause 
(1907) has surmised that the active principle may be a bacterial toxine 
arising from decomposition of the tissues of the larva, but he presents 
no support of this view and it is opposed by all the available evidence. 
In China, a bug, Heuchis sanguined, belonging to the family 
Cicadidfe, is used like the Meloidas, to produce blistering, and often 
causes poisoning. It has been assumed that its vescicating properties 
are due to cantharidin, but the presence of this substance has not 
been demonstrated. 
