On Medical Entomology. 241 



The first order of the neurosoiS consists chiefly of those 

 moral alfections which under the name of vesanice torment 

 the patients and excite despair in the physician. Spasms 

 are classed after vcsanise. The prognostic of them is equally 

 fatal, and the cure equally doubtful. We are acquainted 

 with no remedy for epilepsy, and tetanus kills almost all 

 those whom it attacks *. Means, however, have been found 

 to cure the tclanus of wounds arising from the sudden sup- 

 pression of the puriform flux, by calling back suppuration 

 by multiplied incisions, the affusion of warm oil of turpen- 

 tine, cupping, or the application of vesicatories to the 

 wound f. 



Besides the universal empire which the nerves have over 

 the animal econoniy, they exercise a particular influence 

 on each function, which may be sin sr'v altered 3 and these 

 local anomalies constitute the third order of the neuroses. 



One of the finest attributes of the nervous system is, 

 without contradiction, that of presiding over the act of re- 

 production. I shall not here trace out a list of the pre- 

 tended aphrodisiacs, the remembrance of which I could 

 wish to efface. It will be sufficient for me to observe that 

 cantharides form the principal ingredient. 



The premature death of Lucretius is ascribed by his bio- 

 graphers to an amorous philtre. The learned Fare relates, 

 that a courtesan, having given a ragout, besprinkled with 

 cantharides, to a young man she had invited to sup with 

 her, he soon after experienced symptoms which terminated 

 in his death. 



In comatose affections, which form the fourth order of 

 the neuroses, nature is oppressed but not exhausted. The 

 object, then, is to remove the obstacles which oppose the 

 development of the vital forces. Can the utility of can- 

 tharides in these critical circumstances be doubted, in which 

 real too ol'ten succeeds apparent death ? 



Among the diseases of the lymphatic system, dropsies 

 are those alone which allow the use of cantharides ; but 

 they must be administered with cironn)spection. Frc- 

 dcr«: II. kin^ of Prussia, being attacked with the hydro- 

 thorax, of which he died after eleven months suflTering, 

 experienced some relief from the application of a vesicatory 

 to the arm. Several examples attest in favour of alcoholic 

 solution of cantharides, in the dose of six drops, in anasarca 



•.Hciirteloup Prdcis sur Ic Tctanos des Adultes. Avert. 

 t Hturtcloup ut supra, p. 34. 



Vol. 91. No. 83. April 1805. Q an J 



