“a? ee unde et 
NATURAL HISTORY. 165 
nature, with great luftre. Green, azure and gold 
colours blend their hues to embellifh them. They 
are moftly natives of the fouthern parts of Europe. 
‘The fpecies ufed medicinally is nine or ten lines in 
length, of a fhining green colour mixed with azure, 
and very prolific. hefe infects are. fometimes ob- 
ferved to fly in fwarms. A difagreeable fmell, like 
that of mice, indicates their approach. By this {cent 
they are found by the gatherers, who colleét them 
for the apothecaries. When dried, fifty of them 
{carcely weigh a drachm. Shrubs, and particularly 
the leaves of afh tree, are their food. So corrofive 
are the odorous particles emitted by this infeét, that 
great caution is requiredin taking them.— For many 
have been known to have fuftered greatly, by only 
having gathered a quantity of them with their bare 
hands in the heat of the fun: Some have been op- 
preiled with fleep, by fitting under trees on which 
fwarms of cantharides have fettled. Contrary to the 
eneral cuftom of rfature, the female courts the male. 
he larve are produced from the ground, where the 
“eggs are always depofited. I hefe infects, reduced to 
powder, are exceedingly efficacious as blifters, in ab- 
forbing er drawing off humors which threaten the 
effential parts of life. But the cantharides is, not- 
withilanding, a moft formidable poifon, if taken in- 
ternally without the greateft caution. Some who 
have been afflicted bv their incautious ufe of them, 
have found the beft antidotes to be milk, olives, cam- 
phire and oil of {weet almonds. i 
The larve of the meloes inhabiting this country, 
greatly refemble the perfect infects; for they are of 
the fame colour, are as large, and are as flow in their 
motion. They are generaily found buried deep in 
the earth, where they metamorphofe themlelves into 
perfect cantharides. 
We have introduced the meloe veficatorius, which 
is generally known by cantharides or Spanifh fly to 
fhew in. what it is different from a preceding genus, 
Se cantharis, for which it is frequently mif- 
» taken. 
