THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 125 



The bee exudes the softening wax from one region of its 

 body, and burning poison from another; can the nectar of 

 flowers furnish the perfumed honey and the most acrid 

 venom ? 



The Cantharis and the Meloe transmute the harmless 

 juices of our ash-trees and the grass of our meadows into 

 dangerous poisons, and how many persons have fallen vic- 

 tims to these poisonous insects in our country ! 1 Yet it is 

 the same grass which loads with fat the flesh of our cattle. 



And, lastly, how does the scented Staphylinus extract 

 from the foul stuff on which it feeds the grateful perfume 

 which exhales from its rings, and covers the fingers of those 

 Avho touch it ? 



1 The Cantharis officinalis, so much employed at present for making blisters, is 

 one of the most deadly poisons in the world. It produces death when given in a 

 very small dose, and even the external use of it is not free from danger. The 

 works of writers of every epoch contain lamentable accounts of poisoning pro- 

 duced by this formidable beetle. Pliny relates that Cossinus, a Roman knight, 

 and a favorite of Nero, died after having taken a drink prepared with Canthar- 

 ides by one of the Egyptian physicians, who were at that time very much sought 

 after in Rome. The writings of Galen and Dioscorides contain similar tales. 

 Among modern authors, Orfila and H. Cloquet also quote a number of those cases 

 of poisoning, which are common enough. 



Other Coleoptera contain poisons which are no less active than those of the 

 blistering fly, as, for instance, the Meloes, heavy insects of a deep blue color, 

 having only rudimentary elytra, and which are found in the grass at the spring 

 of the year. Latreille thinks that it was these that the ancients called Bupres- 

 tides, and accused of being fatal to oxen when they swallowed them along with 

 the grass of the meadows. According to the same learned author, the criminal 

 use of these insects was so common at that time that the legislators were obliged 

 to try and check it by proclaiming the Lex Cornelia, which condemned to death 

 any man who poisoned his fellow-man with Meloes. Latreille, Cours d'Ento- 

 mohgie, Paris, 1831, p. 56. , 



