Scribonius Largus is little different. Aëtius, Oribasius, and Actuarius only copy from Dioscorides, without suggesting any improvement. Avicenna and Rhases mention that cantharides occasion inflammation of the penis and erections. They agree with the Greeks in recommending oily emetics, clysters of the same, and, what we believe is an improvement which we owe to the Arabians, injections of rose-oil into the bladder by means of a waxen tube (flexible catheter). Rhases approves of bleeding, provided it be long since the patient was bled, and violent pain be felt in the region of the thighs, that is to say, if the urinary organs are much affected. Haly Abbas mentions ardor urinæ, strangury, and bloody urine among the symptoms, and recommends oil by the mouth as an emetic and purgative, and by injection. Alsaharavius mentions swelling of the penis, bloody urine, and suppression thereof, and remarks that the same effects have been sometimes brought on by the external application of cantharides, in which case he recommends the tepid bath and emollient fomentations. His treatment is like that of his other countrymen; for example, he joins them in approving of injecting rose-oil into the bladder. It would appear that cantharides were sometimes used by the ancients for the purpose of committing suicide. According to Cicero, it was by this means that C. Carbo destroyed himself. (Ad Familiar, ix, 21.) Ambrose Paré, Matthiolus, and all the earlier modern writers on toxicology, follow the treatment laid down by the ancients. Notwithstanding the concurrent testimonies of all these authorities, Professor Orfila, in the last edition of his ‘Toxicologie,’ and Dr. Christison, in his late work on ‘Poisons,’ affirm “that oil is the reverse of an antidote.” Yet, in a case lately published, the free administration of olive-oil was followed by copious discharges, both upwards and downwards, of cantharides mixed with the oil. (Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. No. 104, p. 214.) And surely, if laxatives are to be administered at all, oily ones are to be preferred, as producing least irritation, and not being likely to be absorbed. It can scarcely admit of dispute, that the _mylabris cichorei_ is the same as the ancient cantharis. It is still used in Turkey and India for the composition of blistering plasters, being possessed of much the same properties as the Spanish fly. SECT. XXXI.—ON THE BUPRESTIS.