COLEOPTERA. 497 
caution of putting on gloves, for if touched with the naked 
hand, they would cause more or less serious blisters. The same 
precaution must be observed in gathering them. 
When the Cantharides are quite dry, they put them into wooden 
boxes, or vessels of glass or earthenware, hermetically sealed, 
and preserve them in a place protected from damp. With 
these precautions, they may be kept for a long while without 
losing any of their caustic properties. Dumeril made blisters of 
Cantharides which had been twenty-four years in store, and 
which had lost none of their energy. When dry they are so 
light that a kilogramme contains nearly thirteen thousand insects. 
_ Aretius, a physician who flourished at Rome in the first century 
of our era, seems to have been the first to employ Cantharides, 
reduced to powder, as a means of vesication. Hippocrates adminis- 
tered them internally in cases of dropsy, apoplexy, and jaundice. 
But it is pretty nearly established that the Cantharides of the 
ancients were not the same species used at the present day. They 
were probably a kindred species, the Mylabris chicorti. A 
blistering principle has been extracted from these insects called 
Cantharadine. This organic product presents itself under the form 
of little shining flakes, without colour, soluble in ether or oil. 
One atom of this matter applied to the skin, and particularly to 
the lower lip, makes the epidermis rise instantaneously, and pro- 
duces a small blister filled with a watery liquid. In spite of the 
corrosive principle which the Cantharis contains, it is attacked, 
like other dried insects, by the Dermestes and the Anthrenus, 
which feast on them without suffering the smallest inconvenience. 
The genus Mylabris corresponds most in structure, in appearance, 
and in properties, to Cantharis, whose place they take in the 
East, in China, and in the south of Europe. They are found in 
clusters on the flowers of chicory, thistles, &c. The Mylabris 
chicorii, common enough in France, especially in the south, is of 
small size, whilst the other species are rather large. It is black, 
hairy, with a large yellowish spot at the base of each elytron, and 
two transverse bands of the same colour. 
Another genus of this family is Meloé, with very short elytra, 
and without wings: They walk slowly and with difficulty on low 
plants, the female dragging along an enormous abdomen filled 
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