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 Pyrethrum 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 
powder was inactive against the tapeworm, but against Ascarides it 
was effective when a concentrated infusion was used as a clyster. 
Likewise an 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 cameum are recorded by 
Schipulinsky (244) in 1854, and Frontali (88) records the same for 
the flowers of C. cinerarixfolium in 1858. 
According to the Chemist and Druggist (21), an American doctor 
in 1898, through an accident to a child, found that insect powder 
has anthelminthic 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 
insect powder are described by Mendelsohn (194), Ferrand (81), and 
