The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-18
USE FOR COCKROACHEs.
Medicine Can BE Made From the In
sects That Chamber over Decks.


From CasselFs Journal.
Many people will be surprised to learn
that use has been found for our friend
the cockroach. For years he has been
branded as pest, and we have dosed him
with borax, plaster of paris, and insect
powder. Now the tables are turned, and
the insect physics us. American doctors
say that tincture of cockroach is good for
asthma, and the preparation has been used
lately in England Anyone wishing to try
the remedy can make it by soaking four
large cockroaches in an ounce of spirit of
wine for few days. Twenty drops of the
liquid on a lump of sugar ought to charm
away the worst attack. OF course, pa
TENTS might object to the word cock
roach" but the Latin name, "Llatta ORR
entails" is sufficient to allay the fears of
the most particular. Cockroach tea is a
favorite domestic medicine with the work
ing classes in Russia. If cockroaches will
cure us, there is no reason why spiders
should not be tried also AS a matter Of
fact they have been used by the homeo-
paths for years. Solomon told us we
could find spiders "even in kings pal
aces" but nowadays we can trace them
in innocent-looking tinctures and sugar
pills "Tarantula pilules' Is a title that
should be worth fortune if well adyer-
tised, and a tincture prepared from the
mygale-the great bird-eating spider of
Mexico-ought certainly to possess equal
virtues. Our choice, however, is not con-
fined to giant spiders.
The garden spider with the gold or sill
yer body, so common in the summer. will
IL -, "a 49,.
to the homeopathic pharmacopoeia A few
of these insects, rubbed down in a mortar
with little spirit will make a mother
tincture," from which countless dilutions
can be prepared. If this will not suffice
the black Curacao spider, from West In
dian orange groves, or the gray spider
of Kentucky, may be used, according to
tase. The homeopaths are fond of beetles
and they treat ladybirds in the same way
as the spiders. They also get an essence
from the Colorado beetle-the insect which
ruined the potato crops a few years back
1t is one thing to rob the bees wholesale
and secure their wax and honey, but it is
rather hard lines on poor "apis mellifca"
to turn her into medicine as we'll But she
had to go in with the rest, and Weld hei.
life in the cause of science. OF course, any
one who has felt a bee s sting knows what
a powerful drug it's poison must be- It's
rather dangerous work robbing a hive Of
bees of their stings and poison. The method
recommended in books is simple but ex-
citing. The bees are to be caught in a
bottle as they leave their home in the
morning. They are then deprived of their
poison bags and stings by means of scis-
sors, and the severed portions are soaked
in spirits to make tincture.
Besides insects, other queer things are
used in medicine at the present time. To
give only two examples, remedies are pre-
pared from the starfish and the crayish
Snake venom-notably that of the cobra
the rattlesnake, and the adder-is some
times used. Nowadays a great many
drugs of animal origin are being expert
mented with, and some people prophesy
that they will eventually Gust all the rest
Anyway, people are getting medicines as
well as food from domestic animals. like
sheep, pigs and fowls. II may frighten
nervous people to hear that explosives are
used in medicines. Fortunately, however.
the nitro-glycerine which is given in heart
disease is so well diluted and in such small
doses that no harm can come of it. The
guncotton, too, used by surgeons Is dis
solved in spirit, and so loses it's power to
explode. Ambergris and musk, Two per-
fumes of animal origin. have both been
used as remedies. But the musk costs 10
shillinge a dose, so that only few can az
ford to take it.