4 definitions found for Cantharis

Cantharis CANTHARIS or plu. CANTHARIDES, n. Spanish flies; a species of Meloe. This fly is nine or ten lines in length, of a shining green color, mixed with azure, and has a nauseous smell. It feeds upon the leaves of trees and shrubs, preferring the ash. These flies, when bruised, are universally used as a vesicatory, or blistering plaster. The largest come from Italy, but the best from Spain.

cantharis noun (plural cantharides) Etymology: Middle English & Latin; Middle English cantharide, from Latin cantharid-, cantharis, from Greek kantharid-, kantharis Date: 14th century 1. Spanish fly 1 2. plural but singular or plural in construction a preparation of dried beetles (as Spanish flies) used in medicine as a counterirritant and formerly as an aphrodisiac

Blister Blis"ter, n. [OE.; akin to OD. bluyster, fr. the same root as blast, bladder, blow. See Blow to eject wind.] 1. A vesicle of the skin, containing watery matter or serum, whether occasioned by a burn or other injury, or by a vesicatory; a collection of serous fluid causing a bladderlike elevation of the cuticle. And painful blisters swelled my tender hands. --Grainger. 2. Any elevation made by the separation of the film or skin, as on plants; or by the swelling of the substance at the surface, as on steel. 3. A vesicatory; a plaster of Spanish flies, or other matter, applied to raise a blister. --Dunglison. Blister beetle, a beetle used to raise blisters, esp. the Lytta (or Cantharis) vesicatoria, called Cantharis or Spanish fly by druggists. See Cantharis. Blister fly, a blister beetle. Blister plaster, a plaster designed to raise a blister; -- usually made of Spanish flies. Blister steel, crude steel formed from wrought iron by cementation; -- so called because of its blistered surface. Called also blistered steel. Blood blister. See under Blood.

Cantharis Can"tha*ris, n.; pl. Cantharides. [L., a kind of beetle, esp. the Spanish fly, Gr. kanqari`s.] (Zo["o]l.) A beetle (Lytta, or Cantharis, vesicatoria), havin1g an elongated cylindrical body of a brilliant green color, and a nauseous odor; the blister fly or blister beetle, of the apothecary; -- also called Spanish fly. Many other species of Lytta, used for the same purpose, take the same name. See Blister beetle, under Blister. The plural form in usually applied to the dried insects used in medicine.