INSECT MEDICINES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6492, 17 December 1881, Page 3

INSECT MEDICINES.

It is curious, as has been more than once remarked, to look back at t he list of materia medioa of olden times, when the vipers, toads, insects held a prominent place, and wore administered with as much confidence in their remedial effects as is now bestowed on the vegetable apd mineral medicines of the present practice. In those dai s powdered silkworms were esteemed as invaluable remedies for vertigo and convulsions 5 earwigs were given to strengthen the nerves j nnd five gnats were equivalent, as a purge, to three grains of calomel. Bees dried and pulverised were believed to cure the falling out of the hair, and were also administered internally bv the homoeopaths. Those insects, ■ay they, are similar in their action to oantharides. and often succeed when the latter fail, i»gain, in the olden time, powdered scorpions wore regarded as an infallible panacea for certain diseases j and fly water was none the lens esteemed in various affections of the eye. The tick was good for erysipelas, and the wasp was a most invaluable diuretic. The lady-bird was esteemed as a sovereign remedy for oolio and measles, and crushed upon an aching tooth was long regarded as a specific for toothache. The same insect is now included in the horoooopathio pharmacopoeia, and in the form of a trituration is supposed tab# useful in swelling of the gums and toothache accompanied by dull headache. Qerbl, a learned Italian professor, assures us that if a Anger be once imbued with the juices of a little insect rejoicing in the se-qul)>edalian name of Rhinobatus antiodontalgious, it will thereafter retain its power of curing the toothache for a whole year. In former days ants wore celebrated- os specifics against leprosy and deafness, and distilled with spirits of wine they formed the 4qua MagnanimilaUt of ancient medicine, a liquor which was believed to give vigor and animation to the whole bodily frame. The same extract of ants was also considered efficacious in strengthening the memory and increasing the power of loving, nnd it likewise prevented paralysis and cured ringing in the oafs, etc. The chrysalides of ants were said to bo diuretic, and they have been used in dropsy. A preparation called 11 spirit of ants” is included in the Oormaq pharmacopoeia, and was formerly muoh used internally as a stimulant, just a# ammonia is usually em-

ployed; but formic acid, which is tho active agent in tho preparation, is not now regarded with favor by the medical faculty, and is little used.

The cockchafer (Melolonthn) of Europe was onoe highly esteemed us a remedy for the bite of u mad dog and tho plague. Dio*corides is authority for tho statement that a plaster of spiders applied to the temples will keep off ague | however this may be, it is certain that these in-ects are occa tonally used as an ini omul remedy, in pill form, fora like purpose in some of the Southern States. Triturations and tinctures of one or two specie* of spiders in the howunipathlo pharmacopoeia ; and one species has been largely employed in tho United States instead ot the Spanish fly. The cochineal insect was formerly regarded as n stimulant, antispasmodio and diuretic, and still enters into un old fashioned proscription for whooping cough i but its remedial virtues are so doubtful that it has dropped from tho rank of a medicine to that of a mere colouring agent for medicinal preparations. In this capacity, however, it reSains something of its lost prestige, for the coper the tint of the preparation coloured with it the stronger tho medicine in tho imagination of the average patron of the drug store.