💾 Archived View for spam.works › mirrors › textfiles › conspiracy › spanish.fly captured on 2023-06-14 at 16:16:25.
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From: Bruce.Tindall@launchpad.unc.edu (Bruce Tindall) Subject: Spanish Fly [Billionth iteration of very ancient reference to Spanish Fly deleted.] Spanish Fly (pulverized blister-beetles) contains cantharides, which can cause physical arousal of a sort, by irritating the urinary tract when ingested and excreted. But dig this: it was used in the mid-19th century to treat pleurisy. Applied to the skin, it created blisters 12 by 6 inches in size, which (it was erroneously thought) beneficially drew liquid away from the lungs. You want that *inside* your ureter? In Victorian England there were several cases of manslaughter or malicious poisoning by means of Spanish Fly. In one, Regina v. Hennah, 1877, in which the victim didn't die, the defendant was acquitted because no intent to harm was proved. In more recent times, and more legitimately, the active ingredient in Spanish Fly was used medicinally to dissolve external warts. Sources: (1) P.V.Taberner, "Aphrodisiacs: the science and the myth" (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985). We don't need no stinkin' ISBNumber; look it up in your library catalog or Books in Print. (2) Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., source of last resort, s.vv. "aphrodisiac" and "blister beetle". Note: the weasely "diode joke" is frowned upon in this newsgroup. If you have any questions, Phil Gustafson will be glad to rearrange your :-) for you. Bruce "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the direct current flows" Tindall