CANTHARIDuE — BLISTER-FLIES. 63 



that applied externally they are useful, in combination with 

 juice of Taminian grapes, and the suet of a sheep or she- 

 goat. They are extremely efficacious, too, continues Pliny, 

 for the cure of leprosy and lichens ; and act as an emmena- 

 gogue and diuretic, for which last reason Hippocrates used 

 to prescribe them for dropsy.^ 



The vesicatory principle of the Blister-fly is called Can- 

 tharidine, and has been ascertained by experiment to reside 

 more particularly in the wings than in other parts of the 

 body. Our officinal insect is the Gantharis vesicatoria; 

 and since the principal supply is from Spain, we call them 

 commonly Spanish -flies. In Italy, the Mylabris cichorii, 

 a native of the south of Europe, is used ; and the M.j^us- 

 tiilata, a native of China, is used by the Chinese, who also 

 export it to Brazil, where it is the only species employed. 

 In India also a species of Meloe is used,^ possessing all the 

 properties of the Spanish -fly. 



At one time in Germany, the genus Meloe — Oil-beetles 

 (so called from their emitting from the joints of the legs an 

 oily yellowish liquor, when alarmed) — were extolled as a 

 specific against hydrophobia ; and the oil which is expressed 

 from them is used in Sweden, with great success, in the 

 cure of rheumatism, by anointing the afi'ected part.^ Dr. 

 James thus enumerates the medicinal virtues of these in- 

 sects : " The Oil-beetle (Scarabseus unctuosus of Schroder) 

 is much of the nature of Cantharides, forces urine and blood, 

 and is of extraordinary efficacy against the bite of a mad 

 dog. Taken in powder, it cures the vari, or wandering 

 gout, as we are assured by Wierus. The liquor is, by 

 some, esteemed of efficacy in wounds; it is an ingredient 

 also in plaisters for the pestilential bubo and carbuncle, and 

 in antidotes ; an oil is prepared by infusion of the living 



killed, or brought to death's door, by a wanton use of these Flies, 

 which had been given them privately, with a design to cause love. 

 Some go so far as to affirm, that people have been thrown into a 

 fever, on\y by sleeping under trees on which were a great number 

 of Cantharides; and Mr. Boyle informs us, after authors worthy of 

 cfedit, that some persons have felt considerable pains about the 

 neck of the bladder, only by holding Cantharides in their hands, — 

 Nat. Hist, of Ins., p. 50-1. 



1 Pliny, JVat. Hist., xxix. 30. 



2 Asiatic Res., v. 213. 



3 Baird's Cyclop, of Nat. Sci. 



