38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
cough. “Marquart’s Pharmaceutische Zoologie” also lists this use in 
Bermuda for choking coughs (Geiger, 1839). Radbill (1945) re- 
ported the following beliefs of the Nantikoke (Nanticoke?) Indians: 
As many cockroaches were secured as there were children affected 
with whooping cough. Each cockroach was named after a child who 
placed it in a bottle which was then tightly corked. The sickness was 
believed to pass with the death of the insect. During this period, it 
was necessary to keep the child’s bowels open or the charm might 
react and kill him. Radbill also reported that a person in the city was 
advised to put a cockroach in a thimble, tie it in a cloth, and wear it 
around the neck, “You will never whoop after wearing it.” The 
same information is given by Weiss (1946). 
W orms.—Sloane (1725) reported that in Jamaica, cockroaches were 
given to children as a vermifuge. 
Discussion.—The action of dried Tarakanen, Blatta orientalis, as 
a diuretic has the benefit of some clinical usage to support it. The 
remedy was tested extensively in St. Petersburg, by Dr. P. Bogomo- 
low (1876). This was not the first use of cockroaches as a diuretic, 
however, because Bogomolow reported that a Dr. Kuprianow had 
submitted the following thesis as part of his doctoral dissertation: 
“Die blatta orientalis ist ein sicheres Diureticum in der Gabe von 
einem Gran” and also that cockroaches had been used successfully 
by peasants in Russia as a folk remedy for dropsy. Pavlovskii and 
Shtein (1931) mention that powder and decoctions of B. orientalis 
were introduced by S. P. Botkin as a diuretic in scientific medicine. 
Bogomolow (1876) treated nine patients with dried cockroaches, 
in powder form, as a tincture, and as an infusion. The diseases in- 
cluded nephritis (4 cases), arteriosclerosis (4), Bright’s disease (3), 
cirrhosis of the liver (1), and heart disease (1). In all cases, urine 
excretion increased; the amount of albumin in the urine decreased 
(5 cases) ; edema of hands and feet as well as ascites quickly disap- 
peared; body weight decreased; in four cases there was increased 
sweating ; digestion was not upset and the kidneys were not irritated. 
Bogomolow (1876) isolated, in crystalline form, what he considered 
to be the diuretic principle of cockroaches and designated it anti- 
hydropin. 
Unterberger (1877) used Blatta orientalis to treat children with 
nephritis after scarlatina (4 cases) and measles (1 case). In all 
cases, after a few days there was a shrinkage of the edematous con- 
ditions ; body weight decreased ; excretion of urine increased ; amount 
of albumin became moderate (4 cases) ; kidneys and intestine were 
not irritated. 
