January 13,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
563 
thorax is also black, with three yellow lines, ancl the 
abdomen and legs, which have the same colour, are 
covered with cinereous down. It inhabits chiefly 
the potato plant, and appears about the end of July 
or beginning of August, in some seasons very abun¬ 
dantly. It is found on the plant in the morning and 
evening, but during the heat of the day it descends 
into the soil. The insects are collected by shaking 
them from the plant into hot water, and are after¬ 
wards carefully dried in the sun. They are natives 
of the Middle and Southern States. 
This species of Cantharis was first described by 
Fabricius in the year 1871, and was introduced to 
the notice of the profession by Dr. Isaac Chapman, 
of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who found it equal, 
if not superior, to the Spanish fly as a vesicatory. 
The testimony of Dr. Chapman has been corrobo¬ 
rated by that of many other practitioners, some of 
whom have even gone so far as to assert that the 
potato-fly is not attended with the inconvenience of 
producing strangury. But this statement has been 
ascertained to be incorrect; and, as the vesicating 
property of all these insects probably depends on the 
same proximate principle, their operation may be 
considered as identical in other respects. If the 
potato-fly has been found more speedy in its effects 
than the Cantharis of Spain, the result is perhaps 
owing to the greater freshness of the former. It 
may be applied to the same purposes, treated in the 
same manner and given in the same dose as the 
foreign insect. 
Professor Procter obtained cantharidin from this 
species; and Mr. W. H. Warner has shown that 
the proportion of this ingredient is but slightly less 
than in Spanish flies, the former yielding l - 99, the 
latter 203 parts in 500. Professor Leidy, of the 
University of Pennsylvania, ascertained by experi¬ 
ment that the vesicating property of this insect re¬ 
sides in the blood, the eggs and a peculiar fatty 
matter of certain accessory glands of the generative 
apparatus. 
Occasionally potato vines are very much infested 
by two or three kinds of Cantharules, swarms of 
which attack and destroy the leaves during mid¬ 
summer. One of these kinds has thereby obtained 
the name of the potato-fly. It is the Cantharis 
vittata, or striped Cantharis. It is of a dull tawny 
•yellow, or light yellowish-red colour above, with two 
black spots on the head and two black stripes on the 
thorax and on each of the wing-covers. The under 
side of the body, the legs and the antennae are black, 
and covered with a greyish down. Its length is 
from five to six-tenths of an inch. In this and the 
three following species the thorax is very much 
narrowed before, and the wing-covers are long and 
narrow, and cover the whole of the back. The 
striped Cantharis is comparatively rare in New 
England, but in the Middle and Western States it 
often appears in great numbers, and does much mis- 
cliief in potato fields and gardens, eating up, not 
only the leaves of the potato, but those of many 
other vegetables. It is one of the insects to which 
the production of the potato-rot has been ascribed. 
Brassy Blister-fly, Lytta cenea , Say; greenish- 
blue or brassy, hairy; elytra glabrous, brassy or 
•purplish; feet rufous; knees and trochanters black. 
—Say’s ‘ Entomology,’ iii. p. 108. Lymexylon ceneum, 
Melslieimer’s ‘Catalogue.’ Cantharis nigricornis, 
Eec. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. ser. 2. i. p. 90. 
Body bluish-green or dark brassy, opaque. Head 
punctured, hairy. Eyes oval, not emarginate, fus¬ 
cous. Antennae black, longer than the thorax, joints 
subturbinate, terminal one largest near the middle, 
acute at tip. Labrum prominent, punctured, di¬ 
vided by a profound sinus into two divaricated lobes. 
Palpi blackish. Thorax punctured, narrowed before, 
not wider near the middle than at base, hairy. 
Scutel hairy. Elytra glabrous, somewhat rugose, 
with two obsolete elevated lines. Feet rufous. 
Knees and trochanters black. Length rather more 
than half an inch.—Inhabits Pennsylvania. 
Polished Blister-fly, Lytta jpolita, Say; head 
and thorax glabrous, brassy, green, polished; elytra 
pale olivaceous; feet rufous, trochanters and four 
anterior tibiae bluish.—Say’s ‘Entomology,’ iii. p. 
109. 
Body above glabrous, punctured, beneath hairy. 
Head brassy, polished, with distant punctures. Eyes 
large, oval, entire, prominent. Antennre black, 
rather long. Joints oblong-conic, terminal one 
largest beyond the middle, abruptly narrowed so as 
to resemble a twelfth joint. Tip acute. Labrum 
blue, bilobate, lobes divaricating. Palpi black, not 
remarkably dilated at tip. Thorax glabrous, brassy, 
polished, punctured each side, distinctly wider be¬ 
fore the middle. Scutel hairy. Elytra pale oliva¬ 
ceous, tinged with brassy, slightly rugose, two 
slightly elevated obsolete lines. Feet rufous. Knees 
and two anterior pairs of tibia blue. Tarsi fuscous. 
Length three-fifths of an inch.—Inhabits Georgia. 
Brick-red Blister-fly, Lytta afzeliana , Fabr.; 
testaceous; head and thorax with black points; 
elytra with an oblong spot and a black sinuated 
line.—Fabr. Sys. El. ii. p. 78. Cantharis sinuata, 
Oliv. Ent. iii. 46. t. 2. f. 14. Pyrota afzeliana, 
Dejean. 
About the size of L. vesicatoria. Antennae black. 
Head inflexed brick-red, punctate with black. Tho¬ 
rax narrower than the head, brick-red, punctate 
with black. Elytra brick-red, with an oblong black 
spot at the base and a black waved line. Body 
varied with dingy red and black. Feet black. Base 
of the femora reddish—Native of the southern 
states of North America. 
(To he continued.) 
CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF CHAMO¬ 
MILE FLOWERS.* 
BY M. CAMBOULISES. 
In this paper the author publishes the results of 
an investigation, undertaken by him, into the nature 
of the principles contained in the flowers of the 
Anthemis nobilis. One hundred grams of the flowers 
of the double-flowered variety were exhausted in a 
displacement apparatus by sulphuric ether, sp. gr. 
0-724, and free from alcohol. The tincture so ob¬ 
tained, •when evaporated in a water-bath, yielded 
6'344 grams of ethereal extract. This was treated 
with boiling distilled water, which took up 0 738 
gram of soluble matter, leaving an insoluble residue 
that weighed 5’606 grams, and consisted of a sub¬ 
stance analogous to wax, together with a small quan¬ 
tity of chlorophyll. The aqueous solution ot the 
ethereal extract, perfectly clear at first, became a 
* Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie , 4th aer. vol. xiv. 
p. 337. 
