COLEOPTEEA. 497 



caution of putting on gloves, for if touched with the naked 

 hand, they would cause more or less serious blisters. The same 

 precaution must be observed in gathering them. 



When the Cantharides are quite dry, they put them into wooden 

 boxes, or vessels of glass or earthenware, hermetically sealed, 

 and preserve them in a place protected from damp. With 

 these precautions, they may be kept for a long while without 

 losing any of their caustic properties. Dumeril made blisters of 

 Cantharides which had been twenty-four years in store, and 

 which had lost none of their energy. When dry they are so 

 light that a kilogramme contains nearly thirteen thousand insects. 

 Aretius, a physician who flourished at Rome in the first century 

 of our era, seems to have been the first to employ Cantharides, 

 reduced to powder, as a means of vesication. Hippocrates adminis- 

 tered them internally in cases of dropsy, apoplexy, and jaundice. 

 But it is pretty nearly established that the Cantharides of the 

 ancients were not the same species used at the present day. They 

 were probably a kindred species, the Mylabris chicorii. A 

 blistering principle has been extracted from these insects called 

 Cantharadine. This organic product presents itself under the form 

 of little shining flakes, without colour, soluble in ether or oil. 

 One atom of this matter applied to the skin, and particularly to 

 the lower lip, makes the epidermis rise instantaneously, and pro- 

 duces a small blister filled with a watery liquid. In spite of the 

 corrosive principle which the Cantharis contains, it is attacked, 

 like other dried insects, by the Dermestes and the Ant/iremis, 

 which feast on them without suffering the smallest inconvenience. 

 The genus Mylabris corresponds most in structure, in appearance, 

 and in properties, to Cantkaris, whose place they take in the 

 East, in China, and in the south of Europe. They are found in 

 clusters on the flowers of chicory, thistles, &c. The Mylabris 

 chicorii, common enough in France, especially in the south, is of 

 small size, whilst the other species are rather large. It is black, 

 hairy, with a large yellowish spot at the base of each elytron, and 

 two transverse bands of the same colour. 



Another genus of this family is Meloe, with very short elytra, 

 and without wings. They walk slowly and with difficulty on low 

 plants, the female dragging along an enormous abdomen filled 



K K 



