INSECT POWDER. 15 



As early as 1858 Boucard (34) described the case of a woman, 

 who had strewn much insect powder upon her bed, being taken with 

 a headache, roaring in the ears, bloating of the face, pain in the 

 stomach, nausea, sweating, and symptoms of syncope. About the 

 same time Von Wiggers (8) abstracted a report by an anonymous 

 writer of a case in which a man and his son who had scattered Persian 

 insect powder in their beds passed a restless night, during which 

 they suffered from painful dreams, and the next day had bad head- 

 aches. In 1884 Riley (225), in speaking of the supposition that 

 Pyrethrum has no effect on the higher animals, stated his own experi- 

 ence in which the fumes of the powder in a closed room inten- 

 sified sleep and produced stupor. Coquillet (55) states that insect 

 powder has no injurious effect upon human beings. 



It appears also that there is a difference of opinion with respect to 

 the action of Pyretlirum when taken into the stomach. Milco wrote 

 Coquillet that a teaspoonful of the alcoholic extract of Buhach was 

 administered to a certain person afflicted with tapeworm. The dose 

 was repeated every hour for 10 consecutive hours, as a result of which 

 the tapeworm was removed without injuring the patient in the least. 

 On the other hand, Noodt (205) states that taken internally insect 

 3owder was inactive against the tapeworm, but against Ascarides it 

 was effective when a concentrated infusion was used as a clyster. 

 Likewise 9-n injection of this powder against maggots in the outer 

 ear passages had a remarkable effect. Tests showing anthelminthic 

 properties in the flowers of P. roseum and carneum are recorded by 

 Schipulinsky (244) in 1854, and Frontali (88) records the same for 

 the flowers of C. cinerarisefoliurn in 1858. 



According to the Chemist and Druggist (21), an American doctor 

 in 1898, through an accident to a child, found that insect powder 

 las anthehninthic properties. In 1888 Holmes, in discussing a 

 paper by Kirkby (156), reported a case from Hull, England, where 

 a man had died from the effects of insect powder, but whether the 

 death was due to the powder itself or to some adulterant was not 

 determined. Schlagdenhauffen and Reeb (246) record the poison- 

 ing of 7 persons in 1889 from 1 pound of insect powder which had 

 been strewn in their beds. Bosredon (33), in 1897, recorded an 

 instance of poisoning with insect powder. An infant, aged 1 1 months, 

 playing with a cardboard box of the powder, broke the lid, which scat- 

 tered the powder into the eyes, mouth, and nostrils. When medical 

 aid arrived convulsions and vomiting had set in, the heartbeats were 

 feeble, and the respiration slightly quickened. After carefully re- 

 moving the adherent powder, an emetic of ipecacuanha produced 

 free vomiting, and, except for slight inflammation of the conjunctiva, 

 the patient quickly recovered. Additional cases of poisoning with 

 nsect powder are described by Mendelsohn (194), Ferrand (81), and 



