VEGETABLE POISONS. 209 



more modified degree, are sometimes occasioned 

 by the absorption of the fly after the application 

 of blisters ; the management of which, in parti- 

 cular constitutions, requires much discrimination 

 and judgment. 



Cantharides, in an over dose, may be taken by 

 mistake, and thus produce the symptoms we have 

 enumerated. Or it may be given for the felonious 

 purpose of poisoning, as in the case of Sir Tho- 

 mas Overbury, to whom it was administered in 

 his sauces ; or it may he taken in some other 

 form, with the same diabolical intention. Dr. 

 Male informs us, that a mixture of opium and 

 cantharides is reported to be one of the Neapo- 

 litan slow poisons, the surest and most infallible. 



To remove the symptoms produced by an 

 over dose of cantharides, or by their absorption 

 when externally applied, the most suitable reme- 

 dies are, copious dilution with mucilaginous drinks 

 as linseed tea, a solution of gum arabic in barley 

 water to which a proportion of the nitric ether 

 has been added, milk and the like; oily and 

 demulcent medicines, with or without opium as 

 circumstances shall require ; fomentatio s ; the 

 warm bath ; and, if requisite, the free application 

 of leeches. 



The other animal substances, which, when 

 received into the stomach, discover a-poisonous 

 tendency, are certain fish both of the scaly and 

 shell kind, several of which prove uniformly dele- 



p 



