(
Lytta vesicatoria), a beetle that secretes cantharidin
Aphrodisiac preparations Preparations made from
blister beetles (particularly "
Spanish fly") have been used since ancient times as an
aphrodisiac, possibly because their physical effects were perceived to mimic those of sexual arousal, and because they can cause prolonged erection or
priapism in men. These preparations were known as
cantharides, from the Greek word for "beetle". Examples of such use found in historical sources include: • The ancient Roman historian
Tacitus relates that a cantharid preparation was used by the empress
Livia, wife of
Augustus Caesar, to entice members of the imperial family or dinner guests to commit sexual indiscretions (thus, providing her information to hold over them). • The German emperor
Henry IV (1050–1106) is said to have consumed cantharides. • The French surgeon
Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) described a case in 1572 of a man suffering from "the most frightful
satyriasis" after taking a potion composed of
nettles and a cantharid extract. This is perhaps the same man of whom Paré relates that a
courtesan sprinkled a cantharid powder on food she served to him, after which the man experienced "violent priapism" and anal bleeding, of which he later died. Paré also cites the case of a priest who died of
hematuria after swallowing a dose of cantharides, which he intended to fortify his sex drive. • Cantharides were in widespread use among the upper classes in France in the 1600s, despite being a banned substance. Police searches in connection with a rash of poisonings around 1680 turned up many stashes of "bluish flies", which were known to be used in the preparation of aphrodisiac potions. • Aphrodisiac sweets presumably laced with cantharides were circulated within
libertine circles during the 1700s in France. They were multicolored tablets nicknamed "pastilles de Richelieu," after the
Maréchal de Richelieu, a notorious libertine (not to be confused with his great-uncle, the
Cardinal Richelieu) who procured sexual encounters for King
Louis XV. • The French writer Donatien Alphonse François — notoriously known as the
Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) — is said to have given
aniseed-flavored pastilles laced with Spanish fly to two prostitutes at a pair of orgies in 1772, poisoning and nearly killing them. He was sentenced to death for that (and for the crime of
sodomy), but was later reprieved on appeal.
Non-aphrodisiac uses • The Spanish clergyman
Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias (
es) (c. 1540–1610) reported the use of blister beetles as a
poison as well as an aphrodisiac. • Preparations of dried blister beetles were at one time used as a treatment for
smallpox. As late as 1892,
Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of
osteopathy, recommended inhaling a
tincture of cantharidin as an effective preventative and treatment for smallpox, decrying
vaccination. • Japanese
ninja used blister beetles combined with arsenic to create a noxious gas.
Pharmaco-chemical isolation Cantharidin was first isolated as a chemically pure substance in 1810 by
Pierre Robiquet, a French chemist then living in
Paris. Robiquet isolated cantharidin as the active ingredient in pharmacological preparations of
Lytta vesicatoria (Spanish fly), a species of
blister beetle. This was one of the first historical instances of the identification and extraction of a simple active principle from a complex medicine. Robiquet found cantharidin to be an odorless and colorless solid at
room temperature. He demonstrated that it was the active principle responsible for the aggressively
blistering properties of the coating of the eggs of the blister beetle, and additionally established that cantharidin had toxic properties comparable in degree to those of the most virulent poisons known in the 19th century, such as
strychnine.
Other uses of the pharmacological isolate • Diluted solutions of cantharidin can be used as a
topical medication to remove
warts and
tattoos, and to treat the small
papules of
molluscum contagiosum. • In
Santería rituals, cantharides are used in
incense. ==Veterinary issues==