ON CANTHARIDES. Y7 



examination of" tliefe infefts (liould have engaged the attention Experiments and 



of celebrated phyficians, and that their analyfis (hould have obf™ons on 

 t r . , , . •/! canthandes. 



been frequently attempted by chymilrs. 



The principal aim of all thofe who have operated upon this 

 material, has been to difcover whether the bliRering property 

 which it fo eminently pofTelTes does generally appertain to all 

 the parts of the animal, or whether it do not rather refide in 

 • lome peculiar matter, which, independent of the parts which 

 accompany it, is capable of ading alone, and producing the 

 efFedls which are obfervable by the entire cantharldes. 



It is undoubtedly needlefs to repeat in this place, what has 

 been faid and done refpeding this objecJl; but it is eflential to 

 remark, that no one before Thouvenel purfued that courfe 

 which could lead to the folution of the problem offered for 

 confideration; and accordingly, we muft confider the period 

 in which that phyfician publiQied his experiments on cantha- 

 rides, as the earlieft time in which philofophers could indulge 

 the hope of afcertaining fome pofitive information refpeding 

 the nature and properties of the immediate material of thofe 

 infecls. 



But while we render juftice to the labours of Thouvenel, we 

 muft confefs that he has not carried them to an extent anfwer- 

 able to his happy commencement. For he has neglected fome 

 of the moft important queftions, and among others, thofe which 

 relate to the veficatory, diuretic, and aphrodifiac properties of 

 cantharide?. 



It was to fupply in fome meafure the deficiency of that re- 

 fpedable philofopher upon the above three points, that Citizen 

 Beaupoil has thought fit to undertake a new examination of 

 cantharides. The paper in the annals confilis of an extract 

 from his memoir, by Citizen Deyeux. 



The author divJdes his differtation into four parts. 



In the firfl he gives a rapid (ketch of the fpecific properties 

 of cantharides; the methods ufed for colleQing them, and the 

 preparations to which they are fubje6led previous to their in- 

 trodudion to the market as an article of commerce. 



In the fecond he gives a flight hifiory of the u(e and appli- 

 cation of thefe infeds from the lime of Hippocrates to the pre- 

 fent period. 



In the third we find an accurate outline of the attempts made 

 by chymifls to anaiize the cantharides, as well as an account of 

 bis ovjn particular experiments and their refu'ts. 



The 



