poison through that organ. The drug often has a
marked aphrodisiac action, producing priapism, or in the female sex the
onset of the catamenia or abortion.

Cantharides is used externally for its counter-irritant action. There
are certain definite contra-indications to its use. It must not be
employed in cases of renal disease, owing to the risks attendant upon
absorption. It must always be employed with caution in the case of
elderly persons and children; and it must not be applied to a paralysed
limb (in which the power of healing is deficient), nor to parts upon
which the patient lies, as otherwise a bed-sore is likely to follow its
use. The drug is administered internally in certain cases of impotence
and occasionally in other conditions. Its criminal employment is usually
intended to heighten sexual desire, and has frequently led to death.

The toxic symptoms have already been detailed, the patient usually dying
from arrest of the renal functions. The treatment is far from
satisfactory, and consists in keeping up the strength and diluting the
poison in the blood and in the urine by the administration of bland
fluids, such as soda-water, milk and plain water, in quantities as large
as possible. External warmth should also be applied to the regions
specially affected by the drug.

A very large number of other insects belonging to the same family
possess blistering properties, owing to their containing cantharidin. Of
these the most remarkable is the Telini "fly" of India (_Mylabris
cichorii_), the range of which extends from Italy and Greece through
Egypt and central Asia as far as China. It is very rich in cantharidin,
yielding fully twice as much as ordinary cantharides. Several
green-coloured beetles are, on account of their colour, used as
adulterants to cantharides, but they are very easily detected by
examination with the eye, or, if powdered, with the microscope.

CANTICLES. The Old Testament book of Canticles, or the Song of Solomon,
is called in Hebrew _The Song of Songs_ (that is, _the choicest of
songs_), or, according to the full title which stands as the first verse
of the book, _The choicest of the songs of Solomon_. In the Western
versions the book holds the third place among the so-called Solomonic
writings, following Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In Hebrew Bibles it
stands among the _Megilloth_, the five books of the Hagiographa which
have a prominent place in the Synagogue service. In printed