4«o 
SHE BLOSSOM EATER. 
The female cantharidis feems to feel the accefs of amo- 
rons defire in a more violent degree than the male : It is 
fhe that courts the male ; and in the great aft of fecun- 
dation, it is fhe that occupies that place, to which in 
moil animals nature direfts the other lex. After im- 
pregnation, fhe depofits her eggs in the ground, where 
they remain till they have undergone the various chan- 
ges that are to bring them forth winged cantharides. 
When collected and dried, thefe infefts become fo 
light, that fifty of them hardly weigh a dram : it is in 
that ftate they are grinded down into the well known 
powder, which conftitutes the bafis of the common blif- 
tering plaifter. Of the other purpofes to which they have 
been applied, ignorance is perhaps better than informa- 
tion; and wc freely refign to the annalifts of diffipation, 
the talk of recording thofe vain attempts in which they 
have been employed by the enervated dtbaucher to re- 
ftore his virility. The enterprifes of love, like the fa- 
tigues of war, require certain intervals of reft and tran - 
quillity, without which neither the lover nor the foldier 
can take the field without hazarding his reputation *. 
* Mijitat ompis a mans, ct haj>et fua caftra cupido, Ovip. 
3 
