404 PLINY's natural HISTOET. [Book XXIX. 



controversy on the subject, seeing that, taken internally, they 

 are a poison, attended with excruciating pains in the bladder. 

 Cossinus, a Roman of the Equestrian order, well known for his 

 intimate friendship with the Emperor Nero, being attacked 

 with lichen,*^^ that prince sent to Egypt for a physician to cure 

 him ; who recommending a potion prepared from cantharides, 

 the patient was killed in consequence. There is no doubt, 

 however, that applied externally they are useful, in combina- 

 tion with juice ofTaminian®^ grapes, and the suet of a sheep 

 01- she-goat. As to the part of the body in which the poison 

 of the insect is situate, authors are by no means agreed. Some 

 fancy that it exists in the feet and head, while others, again, 

 deny it ; indeed the only point that has been well ascertained is, 

 that the wings^^ are the only antidote to their venom, wherever 

 it may be situate. 



Cantharides are produced from a small grub, found more 

 particularly in the spongy excrescences which grow on the 

 stem of the dog-rose,^"* and still more abundantly upon the 

 ash. Other kinds, again, are found upon the white rose, but 

 they are by no means so efficacious. The most active of all 

 in their properties, are those which are spotted with yellow 

 streaks running transversely across the wings, and are plump 

 aud well-filled. Those which are small, broad, and hairy, 

 are not so powerful in their operation, and the least useful of all 

 are those which are thin and shrivelled, and present one uniform 

 colour. They are put in a small earthen pot, not coated with 

 pitch, and stopped at the mouth with a linen cloth, a layer of 

 full-blown roses being placed upon them ; they are then sus- 

 pended over vinegar boiled with salt, until the steam has pene- 

 trated the cloth and stifled them, after which they are put by 

 for use. They have a caustic effect upon the skin, and cover 

 the ulcerations with a crust ; a property which belongs also 

 to the pine-caterpillar^^ found upon the pitch- tree, and to the 

 buprestis,^ both of which are prepared in a similar manner. 

 All these insects are extremely efficacious for the cure of 



''^ See B. xxvi. c. 2. 62 ggg B. xxiii. c. 14. 



"■* It Las been ascertained by experiment that the vesicatory principle 

 resides in the wings more particularly. Ajasson remarks, that it is possible 

 that the ancients may not have known the genuine Cantharides, the Cantb. 

 vesicatoria of modern medicine. 



"'^ See B. xxiv. c. 74, 



«:-, u Pityocampfe." See B. xxiii. cc. 30, 40, and B. xxviii. c. 33, 



f'^' See B. xxviii. cc. 21, 33> 42, and B. xxx. c. 10. 



