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 inilead of the Cantharis velicatorius of the Europeans, and is
fuppofed to be more efficacious in certain cafes. The fame author quotes a palTage in Dio/coride 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 mêmes 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 MyLxbre de la Cichorei, and it appears from Dhfcoride 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 o f Cantharides, as they are of a fine green
colour, but is more applicable to the Mylabre de la Cichorei, which is very common in the country where Diofcoride lived.
O lhier, Entomologie, ou OJl. Nat. des Infeaes. Vol. I . Inirod.
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 Linnæus, an infeél 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 infeéts, and toooften without regard to their phyfical virtues. Pliny fpeaks of
the Cantharis as a fmall beetle that eats and confumes com ; and of another that breeds in the tops of afhes and wild olives,
and fhines like gold. The ancients were cenainly well acquainted with our common fort, though it is confounded with others
in a general appellation J. Sippocratex, Galen, PHny, Matthiolus, 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 Linnæan Cantharis is a diftinft genus.
t Applied externally to raife blifters. It is a violent poifon taken inwardly, except in fmall portions.
Î The common sort has been called Mu/ca Hijpanica by fome Latin authors, and hence Spanifh fly by Boyle.
§ Olivier endeavours to prove that the Mylabris Cichorei is the ancient Cantharides ; the authority of his opinion is credible,
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 Scarabæus with
Cantharis ; but whether becaufe they knew that the common kinds of Scarabæi produce the fame effefts as the Cantharis, is
uncertain.—The Scarabaus auratus, and Melolontha, feveral Coccinella, Cimex nigro-lineatus, fife. fife, have a place in the Materia
Medico as Cantharides.