ON CANTHARIDAL COLLODION. 
19 
cularly recommended as affording the means of placing a 
blister upon otherwise inaccessible parts of the body, or in 
situations from whence the movements of the patient might 
easily displace an ordinary plaster, destroying the required 
action, or at least removing it to another part. 
" In using this preparation, it is sufficient to apply, by 
means of a camel's hair pencil, a layer of the liquid to the 
spot upon which the vesicating influence is desired. If, 
after dessication, which takes place in one or two minutes, 
it appears that the part is not entirely covered, the same 
operation should be repeated. A more certain and rapid 
action may be secured by the subsequent application of a 
little lard or simple cerate over the pellicle. More time is 
not required for the production of a blister with this pre- 
paration than with ordinary vesicating agents, and it more- 
over offers the advantage of being entirely unaffected by 
the movements of the patient. 
"Mode of Preparation. — Treat, by the process of displace- 
ment, one pound of bruised cantharides, with one pound of 
sulphuric, and three ounces of acetic ether. In two ounces 
of this saturated ethereal tincture, dissolve twenty-five g aius 
of cotton powder. 
" So simple a process can be performed with ease in any 
pharmaceutical laboratory. In glass stoppered bottles it may 
be preserved unaltered for any length of time. 
"Although intrinsically much more valuable than ordinary 
vesicating agents, its use is less costly, inasmuch as with 
one drachm and a half of collodion, an effect is obtained 
equal to that of half an ounce of blistering plaster. Re- 
peated experiments, by physicians, with the cantharidal 
collodion have verified these statements. " 
The above paper was communicated by the Russian 
chemist, M. Hisch, to the "Med. Zeitg. Rusl." and thence 
republished by the French journal, from which it is here 
translated. The portability, ease of application, and ve^i- 
