Packakd.] 



EDIBLE INSECTS. 



127 



Druggists are indebted to insects for the Spanish fly, or 

 blistering beetle (Cimtharis) for an important article in the 

 pharmacopoeia. Our native species of Cantharis (Fig. 90, a, 

 Lylta cinerea ; b, L. vitirina), of which four are common 

 all over the country, when dry and powdered, afford a good 

 vesicant. 



Were we living in the middle ages, or even as far back as 

 the eighteenth century our materia medica would be swelled 



Fig. so. 



Lytta, or blistering beetle. 



by a long list of entomological nostrums, of which Kirby 

 and Spence aflJbrd us an amusing list. 



As we are indebted to the ant for lessons of prudence 

 and thrift, so has this humble creature given one of the 

 gi'eatest boons to poor suffering humanit}'. To the ant we 

 are indebted for the discovery of chloroform. How the dis- 

 covery of this prince of anodj'ncs came about Dr. Lankcster 

 tells us in his little work on the "Uses of Animals," p. 243. 



"Some years ago, whilst editing the correspondence of 

 John Ray, I was amused by the letters which passed between 

 this great naturalii-t and Dr. Martin Lister of York, on the 

 subject of the 'acid liquid of pismires,' It had been ob- 

 served, that when ants were bruised their juices afforded an 

 acid secretion, Avhich substance was afterwards known as 

 formic acid. The attention of modern chemists being thus 

 called to formic acid, Dumas discovered that it contained a 

 base, a compound radical, which he called formylc. This 



31 



