Aree sy 
XVII. On a new Infe& called Antiodontalgicus, and the 
Property poffeffed by it, in common with fome other Infettss 
a? curing the Tooth-ache. 
Proressor Geregi, im a {mall work publithed at 
Florence, in 1794*, gives the defcription and figure of an 
infect, which is a kind of curculio, that, from its property of 
allaying the tooth-ache, has received the epithet of antzodon- 
talgicus, and which is found on a fpecies of thiftle, carduus 
fpinofiffimus, of which a figure is likewife given. This 
thifile is compared by Profeffor Gerbi to the thiftle of 
Boujarti, and is perhaps a variety of the caicus. Its flowers, 
when analyfed, gave the acid of galls, the muriatic acid, 
oxalat of lime, extractive matter, and a very little refin.. On 
the bottom of the calyx, which fupports the fiowers, there 
are often found excrefcences like the gall-nut, which are at 
firtt fpheroidal, afterwards cylindric, and at length affume 
the figure of two hemifpheres:- they confift of the like 
component parts, but contain more refin, and far more 
oxalat of lime; as the gall apple of the oak, according to 
the experiments of M. Branchi, which are here mentioned, 
contains more of the acid of galls than the bark and other 
parts of the oak, in which he could difcover no {ulphuric 
acid. The infect, according to the author’s obfervations, . 
eats not only the parenchyma, but alfo the veflels and 
fibres of the leaves. The egg, before the worm makes its 
appearance, is nourifhed by the fap of the plant, and:of the 
above excrefcences, in which it refides, by means of the at- 
tractive power that the egg poffeffes for certain vegetable 
juices and fubftances. The excrefcences arife by the accu- 
mulation of a folid fubftance, which is precipitated from the 
nourifhing juices of the thiftle, diminifhed by nourifhing , 
the egg and the worm. . This infect, the eggs of which are 
* Storia naturale di un nuoyo infetto di Ranieri Gerbi. Florence 
4794. 8. 
Vou. II. G depofited 
