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rare, but is, probably, only a variety of the other fort. According to Olivier, the Meloe cichorei is ufed 
by the Chinefe in their medical preparations inftead of the Cantharis yeficatorius of the Europeans, and is 
fuppofed to be more efficacious in-certain cafes, The fame author quotes a paflage in Diofcoride Mat. Med. 
Lib, 2. to prove that it is alfo the Cantharides of the ancients ?. 
i « Les Cantharides des anciens et celle des Chinois ne font pas les mémes que celles des Européens. Les Chinois employ- 
ient le Mylabre de la Chicorée, &c. &c.”—‘‘ The Cantharides of the ancients, and thofe of the Chinefe, are not the fame as 
ours. The Chinefe employ the Mylabre de /a Cichorei, and it appears from Diofcoride Mat. Med. Lib. 2. Cap. 65, the ancient 
Cantharides were the fame as thofe now. ufed by the Chinefe.” ‘* The moft efficacious fort of Cantharides,” fays Diofcoride, 
** are of many colours, having yellow tranfverfe bands; the body oblong, big, and fat ; thofe of only one colour are without 
ftrength.” The defcription Diofcoride has given, does not agree with our fpecies of Cantharides, as they are of a fine green 
colour, but is more applicable to the Mylabre de Ja Cichorei, which is very common in the country where Diofcoride lived. 
Olivier’s Entomologie, ou Hift. Nat. des Infeées. Vol. I. Introd. 
The Cantharides of the ancients, are by no means to be confounded with thofe of medical writers in the laft century. By 
the term Cantharides, in an European Pharmacopeia, we underftand the Meloe veficatorius * of Linneus, an infeét whofe 
medicinal properties are very generally known f+. The Cantharides of the ancients can fcarcely be afcertained; it was a 
term indifcriminately applied to feveral kinds of infects, and too often without regard to their phyfical virtues. Pliny fpeaks of 
the Cantharis as a fmall beetle that eats and confumes corn; and of another that breeds in the tops of afhes and wild olives, 
and fhines like gold. The ancients were certainly well acquainted with our common fort, though it is confounded with others 
in a general appellation {. Hippocrates, Galen, Pliny, Matthiclus, and other phyfical writers of antiquity, treat of the medicinal 
ufes of Cantharides ; but it is not clear that they alluded to only one fpecies §. 
* Geoffroy calls this a Cantharis. The Linnean Cantharis is a diftin& genus. 
+ Applied externally to raife blifters. It is a violent poifon taken inwardly, except in fmall portions. 
¢ The common sort has been called Mu/ca Hi/panica by fome Latin authors, and hence Spanith fly by Boyle. 
§ Olivier endeavours to prove that the Mylabris Cichorei is the ancient Cantharides; the authority of his opinion is cre- 
dible, and the inference natural, if not conclufive. But if it were in ufe, fo alfo might the common fort, for Diofcoride, 
whom he quotes, mentions thofe of only one colour alfo. The ancients often confounded the term Scarabeus with 
Cantharis ; but whether becaufe they knew that the common kinds of Scarabzi produce the fame effeéts as the Cantharis, is 
uncertain.—The Scarabeus auratus, and Melolontha, feveral Coccinella} Cimex nigro-lineatus, &Sc. &e, have a place in the Materia 
Medica as Cantharides. 





















