January 20,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
5S3 
could not rest upon a tree, or even a humble shrub, 
throughout the entire range of its vision, to inter¬ 
rupt the uniformity of a far outspreading, gently 
undulated surface, that, like the ocean, presented an 
equal horizon in every direction. 
Three species of Lytta have been employed and 
recommended in Mexico, of which we have been un¬ 
able to obtain figures or descriptions. These are,— 
The Four-nerved Blister-ei.y, Lytta quaclri- 
■ nervata, described by Herrera y Mendoza in the 
Gaceta Medic, d. Mexico, vol. ii. no. 17, for 1860, 
page 264. 
The Eight-spot Blister-fly, Lytta octomacu- 
lata, described by Barranco in the Gaceta Medic, d. 
Mexico, vol. ii. no. 15, for 1856, page 225; and 
The Banded Blister-fly, Lytta fasciolata, de¬ 
scribed by Jiminez in the Gaceta Medic, d. Mexico, 
vol. ii. no. 16, for 1866, page 253. All efforts to dis¬ 
cover a copy of this Gazette in London have failed, 
therefore we are compelled to accept the above 
scanty information at second-hand. 
South American Cantharides. 
Several species of Lytta are known to be em¬ 
ployed in South America, and of these the three 
species used at Montevideo by M. Courbon deserve 
to be first noticed, since there can be no doubt of 
their proved value as vesicants. 
Dotted Blister-fly, Lytta adspersa, King; ci¬ 
nereous, minutely punctate with black; feet tawny. 
—Klug, Nova Acta Leop. Nat. Cur. xii. p. 434. t. 25 ; 
Linn. Trans, xix. (1843) p. 472. Epicauta adspersa, 
Dej. Cat. Lytta conspersa, Germ. 
Native of Brazil and Uruguay. 
Length 5 lines. Allied to L. atomaria and L. 
punctata. Black, with cinereous pubescence and 
numerous denuded little points. Labrum and an- 
tenme black. Thorax longitudinally sulcate. Feet 
tawny. 
M. A. Courbon furnishes an excellent account of 
this insect.* It is, he writes, from 13 to 16 milli¬ 
metres in length at the most. Elytra, thorax, 
head and abdomen are asliy-grey, uniformly dotted 
with small black dots. Antenme black. Feet yel¬ 
lowish, or rather reddish.. The grey colour which 
completely covers it, with the exception of the an¬ 
tenme and feet, is caused by small pulverulent 
scales. These may be removed by rather hard fric¬ 
tion, and then the insect becomes black. 
This species is very common in the vicinity of the 
town of Montevideo. It lives on the Beta vulgaris, 
var. cicla, DC., a plant which is also very common 
in the places of which we are writing. I have never 
met with it on other plants. It is found in the 
months of December, January, February and March, 
but it is especially in the months of January and 
February that it swarms about the common beet; 
and sometimes it is so abundant that the plant 
which nourishes it completely disappears under the 
immense quantity of Coleoptera. It is very easy to 
collect them. It should be done by preference to¬ 
wards evening, for at this time of the day these 
insects are less agile, and they settle on the plants. 
They could also be collected in the morning, but the 
months of January and February should always be 
chosen if it is wished to have an abundant supply of 
them. The following is a good method of collecting 
them;—Take a bag of convenient size, at the bot¬ 
* Comptes Rendus de l’Acad. des Sciences, xii. (1855), p. 
1003. 
tom of which place a few leaves of beet; then, on 
reaching the place where they are to be collected, 
cut the stalks of the plants which are covered with 
the insects near the roots, and shake them into the 
bags, so as to cause the insects to fall off. In this 
way large quantities are always collected in a very 
short time. On reaching home, the insects must be 
transferred to a large jar with a wide mouth, which 
is tilled as full as possible. It is then hermetically 
closed, and exposed to the heat of the sun. The 
insects soon perish asphyxiated, and that the more 
speedily in proportion as the jar has been better 
filled. In this manner I have always collected and 
killed them. They might, perhaps, be killed in a 
simpler manner by leaving them in the bag in which 
they were collected, and exposing the bag, when 
perfectly closed, to the vapour of boiling vinegar. 
This blister-fly requires less time than the offi¬ 
cinal species for producing vesication, but its most 
remarkable feature is, that it causes no irritation of 
the genito-urinary organs. I discovered this valu¬ 
able quality in the following manner diming the 
years 1853, 1854, and 1855 :—I had to treat, on 
board the brig * Le Chasseur,’ a man suffering from 
chronic inflammation of the liver, which passed into 
the acute state at longer or shorter intervals. Then 
there was fever which sometimes returned in the 
evening, swelling, and dreadful pain, which caused 
the patient to cry out, and compelled him to remain 
bent double. This pain always yielded, as if by 
enchantment, to the application of one or two large 
blisters loco dolenti, so that at last the patient him¬ 
self asked for the application of the remedy as soon 
as he felt the return of his sufferings. I generally 
employed for this patient a blister made from the 
dotted ff} r , and on each occasion the action took 
place without any irritation in the region of the 
genital organs. But twice, when in default of this 
kind I employed the officinal cantharides, the patient 
suffered from their action on the urinary organs. 
As soon as I had ascertained this interesting pro¬ 
perty in the dotted blister-fly of Montevideo, I used 
them whenever I ordered a blister. Thus I used 
them six times in the case of rebellious sciatica, 
either on one side only, or on both sides, which only 
yielded to the use of blisters placed at the level of 
the place where the sciatic nerve issues from the 
basin, four times in the case of pleurisy, three times 
in the case of chronic bronchitis, twice at the end of 
pneumonia, and in all these cases I never saw any 
irritation of the bladder, or of the canal of the 
urethra. 
Upon this evidence, therefore, M. Courbon most 
strongly recommends the employment of the Lytta, 
adspersa , which he strengthens also by the testi¬ 
mony of M. Bonpland. Dr. Hermann Burmeister 
also names this species with commendation in the 
Lievista Farmaceutica. “ It is this species,” he says, 
“ which is known here (Buenos Ayres) as the ‘Biclio 
moro,’ and is so abundant in our gardens, where it 
does great damage by eating seedling plants. I have 
found it also in the Banda Oriental, and in the pro¬ 
vince of Mendoza.” 
Sunken Dotted Blister-fly, Lytta cavernosa , 
Heiche; yellowish; head and thorax yellow, punc¬ 
tate ; thorax with three longitudinal black lines; 
elytra deep yellow, with large shining sunken black 
dots; body pubescent; feet reddish.— Epicauta ca¬ 
vernosa, Iteiclie, Comptes Rendus, 1855, p. 1006. 
This is nearly of the same size as Lytta adspersa. 
