INSECT POWDER — 13 
same time Von Wiggers (8) abstracted a report by an anonymous 
writer of a case in Sai 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 headaches. 
In 1884 Riley (225), in speaking of the supposition that Pyrethrum 
has no effect on the higher animals, stated his own experience in which 
the fumes.of the powder in a closed room intensified sleep and pro- 
duced stupor. Coquillet (65) 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. Méilco 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 Pyrethrum roseum and carneum are recorded 
y Schipulinsky (244) in 1854, and Frontali (68) records the same for 
the flowers of Chrysanthemum cinerarixfolium in 1858. 
According to the Chemist and Druggist (21), an American doctor 
i 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 seven persons in 1889 from 1 pound of insect powder which had 
been strewn in their beds. Bosredon (83), in 1897, recorded an 
instance of poisoning with insect powder. An infant, aged 11 months, 
playin math 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 
isect powder are described by Mendelsohn (194), Ferrand (S/), and 
the Chemist and Druggist (16). In the only fatal case the patient, 
a 2-year-old girl, had eaten about half an ounce of the powder. 
McCord, Kilker, and Minster (825) report an occupational dermatitis 
among workers engaged in grinding insect flowers. 
Certain species of Chrysanthemum are used as medicine. LEastes 
(74) states that C. parthenium is official in the French Codex, and is 
reputed to have tonic, stimulative, sudorific, diuretic, antipyretic, 
emenagogic, and anthelminthic properties. According to Henry 
(127), many chrysanthemums are used as medicine in China. A 
case of poisoning with C. indicum is described by Hofimann (i398). 
Remington (215) reports that the flowers of C. album and flavum are 
used in China for flatulency, and includes Pyrethrum partheniuwm in 
a list of drugs from Chile, although its use is not given. Stearns 
