CANTHARIS. 



Orfila prove that this is an exceedingly improper remedy in accidents of 

 this kind. According to the experiments of the latter, cantharides mac- 

 erated in cold oil, will, when exhibited to dogs, kill them in a few minutes. 

 This depends on the property which oil possesses of dissolving the active 

 principle of cantharides.* — Bberle's Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 6th ed., 

 1847, pp. 523, 524. 



The writer hopes that the foregoing extracts from "authority" of 

 former days will not serve as an inducement to a revived use of this 

 nearly obsolete agent, but rather as a warning, in which the profes- 

 sional reader may, in thankfulness, recognize that such mistaken ideas 

 of therapeutic torture, under the term "professional care," are no 

 longer customary. 



PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS 



Physicians of the olden time (see preceding pages) relied largely 

 on the virtues of Cantharides blistering plaster in which the powdered 

 fly, in unctuous mixture, was used in substance. Such a medicament 

 has been official in the various world's Pharmacopeias from an early 

 date. The tincture of Cantharides, still* official in the Pharmacopeia of 

 the United States, has been thus recognized, and employed both ex- 

 ternally and internally. Seldom, however, do we find a prescription 

 therefor at the present date other than in very small amount, insuffi- 

 cient to produce marked local irritation. About fifty years ago a 

 preparation known as Cantharidal Collodion became very popular as 

 a liquid blister. In the enthusiasm of its introduction it became 

 official, arid is still a curnberer of the pages of the Pharmacopeia, a 

 lingering relic of mediaeval barbarism. In case there be, in the phy- 

 sician's mind, an occasional necessity for a blister, especially if this be 

 in a part of the body where it is difficult to place cantharidal plaster, 

 the Cantharidal Collodion is markedly superior to cruder forms. How- 

 ever, the use of Cantharides in any form, either internal or external, 

 is now practically obsolete in the practice of most physicians. 



Specific Medicine Cantharis. — In days gone by, the Eclectic 

 school in medicine used Cantharides very conservatively for specific 

 purposes, and in exceedingly' small doses, never in heroic amounts. 

 Specific Medicine Cantharis represents one-half grain of Cantharides 

 to the minim, the dose and uses being summed up as follows by Drs. 

 Ellingwood, Fyfe, and Watkins: 



THERAPY. — In small doses this agent is in use in the treatment of 

 cystitis and bladder irritations, accompanied with tenesmus and constant 

 desire. It is serviceable in enuresis when there is relaxation of the bladder 

 walls, and lack of control of the sphincter, especially in that common to 

 relaxed plethoric women, when upon their feet, and when coughing. 



It is of some benefit in the treatment of dropsies, especially of those 

 following scarlet fever, and diabetes in its later stages. ' 



It is occasionally beneficial in eczema and acne, when accompanied 

 with uterine or vescical irritation, or with amenorrhea. In small doses it is 

 prescribed in sub-acute or chronic gonorrhea or gleet. 



* Journal de Pkarmacie, November, 1822. 



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