ORDER V. COLEOPTERA. —THE ROSE BEETLE. 289 
CrtTontA.—One of the most pleasing specimens of this group is the 
C’. aurata, or Rose Beetle. It is nearly an inch in length, of a shining- 
green color above, coppery-red beneath, with white marks on the elytra. 
It frequents flowers, and has a special fondness for the rose, whence its 
name. In Russia the Rose Beetle is considered a very efficacious remedy for 
hydrophobia. In the governorship of Saratow, which is traversed by the 
Volga, hydrophobia is very frequent on account of the heats which reign 
during the whole summer in its arid steppes. The inhabitants, incessantly 
exposed to be bitten by mad dogs, have tried in succession a great many 
preparations to remedy the results of these terrible accidents. It appears 
that the Cetonia, dried and reduced to powder, has produced on many occa- 
sions good effects. This is the recipe which an inhabitant of Saratow pub- 
lished in a Russian journal, adding that he had employed it for thirty years, 
that not one of the patients treated by him had died, and that his remedy 
could be employed with success in all the phases of the disease. In spring 
they search at the bottom of the nests of the wood-ant for certain white 
Jarve, which they carefully preserve in a pot, together with the earth in 
which they were found, till the moment of their metamorphosis, which takes 
place in the month of May. The insect, which is the common Rose Beetle, 
is killed, dried, and kept in pots hermetically sealed, so that it may preserve 
the strong odor which it exhales in spring, which seems to be a necessary 
condition of the remedy proving efficient. When a case of hydrophobia 
presents itself, they reduce to powder some of these, and spread this powder 
on a piece of bread and butter, and make the patient eat it. Every part 
of the insect must enter into the composition of this powder, which, for this 
reason, cannot be very fine. During the whole time a patient is under treat- 
ment, he must avoid drinking as much as possible, or, if his thirst is very 
great, he must only drink a little pure water; but he may eat. Generally, 
this remedy produces sleep, which may last for thirty-six hours, and which 
must not be disturbed. When the patient wakes, he is, they say, cured. 
The bite must be treated locally, with the usual surgical appliances. 
As to the dose of the remedy, that depends on the age of the patient and 
the development of the disease. They give to an adult, immediately after 
the bite, from two to three beetles; to a child, from one to two; to a per- 
son in whom the disease has already declared itself, from four to five. 
Given to a person in good ‘health, the remedy, however, would be the least 
dangerous. In cases in which the symptoms of hydrophobia show them- 
selves some days after the employment of the remedy, they recommence the 
treatment. They have also tried to prepare this remedy with insects col- 
lected, not in their larva, but in the imago state, by catching them on 
flowers; and it seems that these attempts have succeeded. According to 
