The vesicatory principle of the Blister-fly is called _Cantharidine_, and has been ascertained by experiment to reside more particularly in the wings than in other parts of the body. Our officinal insect is the _Cantharis vesicatoria_; and since the principal supply is from Spain, we call them commonly _Spanish-flies_. In Italy, the _Mylabris cichorii_, a native of the south of Europe, is used; and the _M. pustulata_, a native of China, is used by the Chinese, who also export it to Brazil, where it is the only species employed. In India also a species of _Meloe_ is used,[194] possessing all the properties of the Spanish-fly. At one time in Germany, the genus Meloe--Oil-beetles (so called from their emitting from the joints of the legs an oily yellowish liquor, when alarmed)--were extolled as a specific against hydrophobia; and the oil which is expressed from them is used in Sweden, with great success, in the cure of rheumatism, by anointing the affected part.[195] Dr. James thus enumerates the medicinal virtues of these insects: “The Oil-beetle (_Scarabæus unctuosus_ of Schroder) is much of the nature of Cantharides, forces urine and blood, and is of extraordinary efficacy against the bite of a mad dog. Taken in powder, it cures the vari, or wandering gout, as we are assured by Wierus. The liquor is, by some, esteemed of efficacy in wounds; it is an ingredient also in plaisters for the pestilential bubo and carbuncle, and in antidotes; an oil is prepared by infusion of the living animals in common oil, which some use instead of oil of Scorpions.”[196] In some parts of Spain, they are mingled with the Cantharides, for the same purposes as these latter insects. Farriers also employed, in some cases, oil in which these insects had been macerated.[197] Pliny tells us that Cato of Utica was one time reproached for selling poison, because when disposing of a royal property by auction, he sold a quantity of Cantharides, at the price of sixty thousand sesterces.[198] The natives of Guiana and Jamaica make ear-rings and other ornaments of the elytra, or wing-coverings, of the _Cantharis maxima_; the brilliant metallic colors of which beetles, says Sloane, sparkle with an extraordinary lustre, when worn by the Indians dancing in the sun.[199] Zoroaster says, that “Cantharides” will not hurt the vines, if you macerate some in oil, and apply it to the whetstone on which you are going to set your pruning-knives.[200]