562 PHYSIOLOGY. 



As insignificant as all these insects are in point of the supply of food 

 with which they furnish man, yet many others are extremely important 

 medicinally. The chief place among these is doubtlessly occupied by 

 the true Spanish fly (Lyttcb vesicatoria), a beetle belonging to the 

 family of the Vesicifica, the majority of the members of which more 

 or less possess the same quality. They are applied, when dried, pul- 

 verised, and spread upon wax or salve, as blisters against rheumatic 

 affections and the inflammation of the internal organs, and thereby occa- 

 sion an external attraction. It is for this purpose, not only the most 

 universal, but also the most powerful and effective means. The ancients 

 knew this blistering property, but they did not apply our beetle, but 

 a species of the allied genus Mylabris, to effect this. This beetle they 

 called Kai>6ap\s, a name applied by Linnaeus to a genus of beetles of a 

 different family, whence Latreille, supporting himself by the authority 

 of the ancients, calls Fabricius's genus Lytta, Cantharis, which, how- 

 ever, is not to be justified, as properly our genus Mylabris contains the 

 Cantharis of the ancients. In different countries, however, different 

 species of the genus Lytta are used for this purpose ; thus L. atomaria, 

 Fab., in the Brazils, L. gigas, Fab., in Guinea and the East Indies, 

 L. violacea, Brandt and Ratzeb. *, likewise in the East Indies, L. 

 viltata, F., in North America, L. marginata, F., also in North Ame- 

 rica, particularly in Maryland, L. atrata, F., the same, L. cinerea, F., 

 in Pennsylvania, L. rujipcs, Illiger, in Sumatra and Java. Besides, 

 the following insects of this family have been used for blistering, Lydus 

 trimaculus, Fisch. (Mylabris trim., F.), in the East and in Southern 

 Europe, Mylabris Cichorei, F., in China. The species used by the 

 ancients appears to have been Mylabris Fueslini, Panz., it is sometimes 

 found in Germany, and is very abundant in the south of Europe. An- 

 other genus of this family, namely, Meloe, has been used for a some- 

 what different purpose. There are twenty-seven species of this genus 

 distributed over the earth ; all, as far as they are known, secrete a 

 peculiar yellow fluid, which flows from between the joints of the legs, 

 which, like all the parts of the Cantkarides, has a sharp blistering 

 effect, and, as this consists of the camphor of Cantkarides, it has been 

 therefore applied as a remedy against the bite of mad dogs and the 

 consequent hydrophobia, sometimes with success, and at others without 

 any effect whatsoever, yet modern physicians strongly recommend it. 



* Arzncithierc, vol. ii. p. 121, &c. 



