CANTHARIS 47 



Its introduction into European medicine (1838-39), 

 followed the experiments of O'Shaughnessy (484) in 

 Calcutta, and since that time cannabis and its resin 

 have received a place in most Pharmacopeias. From 

 the beginning of East Indian history, hemp has been 

 smoked as a narcotic intoxicant, and when surrep- 

 titiously added to sweetmeats and foods, it has, in 

 Oriental life, been employed as a narcotic with the ut- 

 most recklessness. This is shown in the exaggerations 

 of the Arabian Nights, which portrays so many life 

 habits of those times. The writer of these studies (1906) 

 found hashish of several qualities both in the bazaars 

 of Asia Minor and Constantinople, one specimen "extra 

 fine hashish" costing him, in a Constantinople bazaar, 

 over two dollars (gold) an ounce. 



CANTHARIS (CANTHARIDES) (Spanish Flies) 



Official in all editions of U. S. Pharmacopeia, from 1820 to 1910. 



Spanish Flies (Cantharis vesicatoria) . This once 

 popular remedial agent has lost its position in modern 

 medication. Its use came hand in hand with medical 

 cruelty, and was an heirloom of ancient heroic medi- 

 cation. Hippocrates (B. C. 375-400) valued can- 

 tharides in dropsy and also in amenorrhea, and it goes 

 without question that a substance so heroic in its action 

 would once have been popular in both domestic and 

 professional American medication. Its use in erysipelas 

 and as a plaster, and to "draw the nervous energy and 

 the circulating fluid" to the surface, and "thus again 

 relieve irritation and inflammation of internal parts," 

 are relics of comparatively recent American medical 

 literature, writers in good reputation commending it 

 highly. At present, however, cantharis is in such dis- 



