Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 127, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1904 — Valuable Insects. [ARTICLE]

Valuable Insects.

Perhaps there are few substances contributed by animals to the materia mediea of greater value or more extensively beneficial than certain species of insects. Of these there are none more highly esteemed for medical purposes than those beautiful, shining, green colored insects known as blistering beetles, or cantharides. Their corrosive, action is so great that they frequently inflame jmfod excoriate the hands of those wb» collect them, and on this chief medicinal virtue depends. They are generally used in the form of plasters or ointment, and in cases of violent visceral inflammation their external use can scarcely be supplied by any other medicine.