BENEFICIAL INSECTS 219 



Bees have been used extensively by homoeopathists, and 

 the most curious property attributed to them is that, if a 

 powder, prepared from bees, is mixed with unguents, " it 

 will contribute to the growth of hair on bald places." And 

 another of the older writers on medical subjects says that, 

 "If bees, when dead, are dried to powder and given to 

 either man or beast, this medicine will often give immediate 

 ease in the most excruciating pain." In Hindustan and 

 Lahore the native druggists keep Mutilla antiguensis, a 

 beautiful insect, resembling a scarlet wasp and possessed 

 of a very long sting. The insect is officinal, and is used by 

 native doctors against snake bite and colic in horses. 



Butterflies and moths contribute but little to the Materia 

 Medica. According to Dioskorides, the caterpillar of the 

 common white cabbage butterfly, Pieris brassicce, if 

 rubbed in with oil, is a sovereign remedy against the bites 

 of animals and insects, whilst the caterpillars of the brown- 

 tail moth, Euproctis chrysorrhcea, and of the procession 

 moth, Bombyx processioned, are ingredients of certain 

 homoeopathic tinctures. 



The medicinal virtues of the Rhynchota, or bugs, are of 

 greater repute. A Chinese cicada, Plata limbata, secretes 

 a kind of grease on various trees ; this hardens into wax, 

 and is collected, melted, and purified, when it becomes 

 white and glossy in appearance. As a native remedy, it is 

 employed in several diseases, particularly as a preventative 

 against palpitations and swooning. The wax is also mixed 

 with oil and made into candles. 



Both Dioskorides and Galen recommended roasted 

 cicadas for bladder troubles; whilst for colic, the latter 

 writer advised five or seven cicadas to be eaten with 

 pepper. 



The green flies, Aphidce, are used medicinally by 

 homoeopathists, a tincture being made of the species Aphis 

 chenopodii glauci, which is found on goosef oot. 



Females of the scale insects, Coccidcu, have been used in 



