Packard.] 
EDIBLE INSECTS. 
127 
Druggists are indebted to insects for the Spanish fly, or 
blistering beetle (Cantharis) for an important article in the 
pharmacopoeia. Our native species of Cantharis (Fig. 90, a, 
Lytta cinerea; &, L. murinct ), of which four are common 
all over the country, when dry and powdered, afford a good 
vesicant. 
Were we living*in the middle ages, or even as far back as 
the eighteenth century our materia medica would be swelled 
Fig. 90. 
by a long list of entomological nostrums, of which Kirby 
and Spence afford us an amusing list. 
As we are indebted to the ant for lessons of prudence 
and thrift, so has this humble creature given one of the 
greatest boons to poor suffering humanity. To the ant we 
are indebted for the discovery of chloroform. How the dis¬ 
covery of this prince of anodjmes came about Dr. Lankester 
tells us in his little work on the “Uses of Animals,” p. 243. 
“Some years ago, whilst editing the correspondence of 
John Kay, I was amused by the letters which passed between 
this great naturalist and Dr. Martin Lister of York, on the 
subject of the ‘ acid liquid of pismires.’ It had been ob¬ 
served, that when ants were bruised their juices afforded an 
acid secretion, which substance was afterwards known as 
formic acid. The attention of modern chemists being thus 
called to formic acid, Dumas discovered that it contained a 
base, a compound radical, which he called formyle. This 
31 
