February 10, 2015 • 19 mins
It's easy to assume the so-called "Spanish fly" is nothing but a myth, but this legendary aphrodisiac is as real as it is deadly. Just why did humans come to treat male sexual dysfunction with ground-up blister beetles? How does it work and why is the Marque de Sade involved in all of this? Find out in this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. We
are continuing our assault on Valentine's Day Downtown exactly. We've
We've talked about kissing, We've talked about the color pink um.
(00:27):
Today we're talking about something a little different, something that's
a little less of a Valentine's Day staple. It's not
like a lingerie, it's not something that is advertised on
billboards come every February. We're talking about Spanish fly, an
aphrodisi act that is at once kind of mythic and
kind of has all this these fictional airs about it,
(00:49):
but at the same time is a definite real thing
that is fascinating in its own right, and often in
ways that you might not expect. Yeah, I mean, people
associate fish fly with afrotusi acts, right, this idea that
you know, someone just needs to have a bit of
it and all of a sudden they will fill amorous
and we'll discuss that. But yeah, you're right there. The the
(01:11):
the actual implications of Spanish fly itself very differently. When
is the earliest you ever heard any inkling of Spanish fly,
You know, I don't. I want to say, like middle
school is I have an idea of that. And I
also have an idea of tequila in the worm at
the end of the bot or the bottom of the
bottle is being part and parcel of that, which I
(01:34):
don't think exists either. Yeah, I feel like and maybe
you can relate to this. I feel like it might
have been referenced in kind of an off color reference
in some old timey cartoons, like I don't know if
it was something that I had some exposure to, and
because I feel like there was maybe a moment where
somebody had had a bottle labeled Spanish fly and it
(01:56):
showed up as a gag and something in another you know,
like it was that level of of unbelievable that it's
just some sort of like magic juice that that somebody
gives to another person and it makes them, uh you know,
wild and randy or something. Well, it's back I think
in the collective conscience because uh, as we know, Bill
Cosby allegedly has been accused of um giving his giving
(02:21):
people certain drugs um and then raping them and uh
he has a routine I believe in the sixties, Yeah,
from his sixty nine comedy album It's True, It's True.
And he also talks about it in his childhood yes, um.
And he he has referenced rufies or some sort of
(02:42):
rufies before and other interviews and someone and so forth. Um.
But he talks specifically about Spanish fly in this one
routine from the album It's True, It's True. Yeah, if
I remember correctly, in the bit he's he's talking about
as a kid hearing about it, which is very relatable
because I, you know, my earliest memories of hearing about
this thing are also in childhood, and and from a
(03:04):
childhood perspective, it sounds kind of just fanciful and weird
and maybe even attractive on some level, you know, like, oh,
this is this thing, and you know, and though off,
you give it to somebody and then suddenly they're all
lovey devy, like that's the very unreal version of it.
But then you you take it and you put it
into reality, you put it into an adult reality, and
you're talking about something that's really rather horrible and and
(03:27):
in in in the case with the allegations against Bill Cosby.
You also see that that that story of childhood taken
and then and then what happens when you look at
it from a very real adult standpoint. I mean it's
a it's just deplorable. Yeah, I mean, the the actual
thing that he says. He says, go to a party,
see five girls standing alone and that boy. If I
(03:48):
had a whole jug of Spanish way, I'd light that
corner up over there. Ha ha ha. So right, it's
a you know, hearing it now is it's a little
bit disconcerting, but it brings up the whole idea of
the Spanish fly and whether or not it's actually a
true aphrodisiac and what the deal is with it. And
I just want to point out that FDA study proved
(04:12):
that the chemical had no sexual effects on men or women,
and yet the myth of this continues to persist, and
how you define sexual effects kind of differs, and we'll
talk more about that later. All right, So what is it?
People are probably wondering, what is the Spanish fly? Is
it an actual fly? No, but it is. It is
(04:32):
a beetle, technically a blister beetle. To be a specific
They're about different species of blister beetle. But we tend
to collect this. Uh, this agent cantharadin from two specific species.
There's a European blister beetle called light of Asigatoria and
(04:52):
there's a North African blister beetle known as my lab
risk kikori. And uh, they secrete this. They secrete cantharit
and as a self defense, as a chemical weapon to
keep things from eating them. And this is the type
of insect that's it's brightly colored, long body, bright greens,
blue wing cover stripes. It's sending a clear message to
(05:15):
potential predators. Hey, if you eat me, bad things are
going to happen because I'm just laden with chemical weapons. Yeah.
And that canthar it in. It's a it's a turpin
and organic chemical compound. And they secrete it. The beatle
secrete it as this kind of milky looking fluid from
the joints in their legs. Very convenient. Yeah. Now this
(05:36):
is this doesn't have much to do with canthartin, but
it's pretty interesting as a side note. Um, these blister bugs,
they the adults lay eggs near the nest of the
solitary b and then these larval b lice as they
call them, feed on the eggs and food stores, and
they eventually grow into adulthood dropped to the ground, feed
on vegetation. And it's in this life then that they
(05:57):
have the full protection of the canthard and to keep
things from from meeting, most things from eating them. Because
it's worth noting that there are um some birds such
as the meadow lark, such as the bluebird scissor tailed flycatcher,
that are conferred and resistant and uh and make them
a part of their diet. Yeah. And there are accounts
(06:17):
though of some livestock eating them and actually being poisoned
by them. So most most animals steer clear, but as
you say, some of them can actually stave off the
effects of conferait in. Now we should probably talk about
how conferred in works in terms of the Beatles reproductive life.
(06:39):
This is very interesting. Yeah, And then in this we
get right into the Valentine's Day theme, like legitimately and
not in a weird creepy way, because of course Valentine's
is about, hey, here's a gift for the person I love,
you know, or failing that, the person that I want
to mate with. That sort of thing you know. Yeah,
like here's a box of chocolate, right, and is essentially
(07:00):
a pre nuptial offering, as we call it in the
animal world. I feel like we've we've talked about this
in the talked about this with orb weaving spiders, where
they say, here, here, here's a gift. Here's a here's
a gift that shows my you know, to anthropomorphize a bit. Here,
here's a gift that shows my my support for you.
Here is some some energy in the form of some
(07:22):
food or whatnot that will help you survive and help
our our offspring survive. Yeah, it's like, hey, we'll we'll mate, right,
here's a little bit of energy. In the case of
pyrochroid beetles, they're doing somewhat of the same thing as
as the male or weaving spiders. They're presenting a gift,
not so much for energy though, is more like protection.
(07:46):
And what happens is that the male beetles essentially hand
over a packet of sperm to the female when they're mating,
and she will fertilize her eggs and she can kind
of take her sweet time with whether or she does
this right. Um, the females can discard the packets that
don't please them, right, there's just not please me, bring
(08:07):
me another. Um. So, what crafty private chroid beetles do
to ensure that their gift of spirm is like really
highly prized and received, is that they produce bonus packs
of camper ridden and this this camphor written will allow
the females to cover her eggs with it, and then
(08:28):
that keeps those eggs safe for predators. So it's kind
of like if you were to give your your your
sweetie a handgun for Valentine's Day and say, here, take this,
protect yourself and our offspring with this lovely handgun. I
think they call that a Texas Valentine. A Texas Valentine, yes,
I mean it's probably a Georgia Valentine too for that matter.
(08:50):
So is the mating ritual kicks off? The pyrochoid male
actually secretes this gooey substance from a groove like structure
in its forehead. Uh. And then the female of course
tastes the gooy since and if she detects canthardin, then
she knows that this is the this is the guy
for her. If it's if it's not there, well then
then maybe she'll pass. Yeah. That's what I think is
(09:10):
so great about this is that, you know, maybe the
beetle titles up and says, hey, I've got a little
camphor it in package here for you, and she's like,
prove it, prove that you can secrete this, and then
out of his forehead it uzes and then she sniffed them.
It's great. This is good like Valentine's drama right here. So,
I mean, that's kind of hard the beat in terms
(09:31):
of a mating ritual. If you want to learn more
about that, check out this article Spanish flies a lure
ardor or armor by Janet Rolla from Science News. So
we're talking about canthardon that that powder you derive from
grinding up the the booster beetles essentially a chemical weapon
(09:52):
devised for the creature's defense. But as as we've discussed before,
humans are all about taking another creature's chemical weapon and
using it for their own advantage. We do it, and
everything from the spices on our food to indeed some
questionable aphrods as in the form of Spanish fly. Hippocrates
prescribed ground blister beetles as a treatment for dropsy. And
(10:15):
then you also have traditional Chinese medicine, using bliss for
beetles to treat piles, alterers and brabies and even warts.
There's another as far as it to use as um
an aphrodeziac or at least it's it's more recreational uses. Um,
there's there's some some interesting details from the life of
(10:38):
the Marquis assad Um s eighteen fourteen, if anyone who's
not familiar with him, French aristocrat, revolutionary, politician, philosopher and writer.
He was a free thinker, a free doer. He was randy,
he was he liked the ladies, he liked the men.
He uh, he liked everything. Uh and uh then he
(11:02):
had a lot of of course, a lot of scandals
in his life. Um, you know, pretty much constantly in
the In seventeen seventy two, Um, there was an incident
where he had engaged his uh, his servant latour to
find him some some prostitutes, and apparently the women in
question helped themselves to the marquees uh personal stash of
(11:26):
Spanish fly laden candies. And uh, since suddenly they're you know,
they're suffering upset stomachs. Uh, they fear they've been poisoned
and uh. Meanwhile, Dessad and the Littour flee the estates
of the king of Sardinia who wanted to have him arrested,
and that they end up being executed in effigy for
(11:48):
for this this crime. But essentially at the case, these
women are poisoned by the Spanish fly. Yeah, and they survived.
But I mean, as we'll discuss it a little bit,
they probably had they probably suffered pretty greatly depending on
the amount that he gave them. I mean, after all,
he was um sentenced to death or attempted murder. Yeah. Yeah,
(12:09):
So just that's just sort of an idea of just
how potent this is. I mean, it's a you know,
it's again it's the it's the the insects chemical weapon,
and if taken in small doses, presumably it's not gonna
kill anybody, but it's apparently very easy to to reach
that threshold of serious harm with this particular agent. Now,
this was also used in terminating pregnancy and um If
(12:33):
you look at the long history of um of abortion,
particularly before it was legalized, and you will see that
there are all sorts of accounts of different things that
may induce pregnancy termination. In the article leeches lie in
Spanish Fly by Kate Manning in the New York Times. Um,
(12:55):
she says, quote and talking about this sort of secret
coda of terminating and pregnancy, she says, quote French periodical
pills warranted to have the desired effect in all cases.
Was one such knowing ad that appeared in the Boston
Daily Times. In those ads spoke euphemistically of curing female
complaint or renovating or unblocking the womb. So what's interesting
(13:19):
about that is, and we'll talk more about the effects
on the human body, is that there was a sort
of wink, wink, Hey, this is this is a substance
that you could use if you have these sort of
female complaints. Yeah. Now, just to go back to Marquis
Assad for a moment, um, there was there's at least
one account that Marquis Assad would would would encourage prostitutes
(13:40):
to partake of these Spanish fly cookies because it would
make them a little gassy, and that he was into that. Um,
he was into gassy sexual relations. I mean, he was
into a lot of things. So I guess that was
you know, that's on the menu. Um, but these are
not this is not the primary desired of fact with
(14:01):
Spanish fly. Most of the accounts that you see generally,
the idea is that it's supposed to to fire up
one's lust or to provide a mail with an erection
when they're having difficulty achieving or sustaining that state. And
it does. But I feel like it's an erection that
you would never want if you if you haven't to
(14:23):
look at the descriptions of this. And let's just start
just even with, um, what it's like to have skin
contact with Spanish fly, because it's not called blister beetle
for nothing, right, Um, you get blisters, estering ones. If
you have contact with your eyes, it can cause blindness.
A deadly dose is only thirty milligrams, and one gram
(14:45):
is enough to cause symptoms in five thousand people. And
when you ingest it, that camphor it in inflames the
gastro intestinal tract, and that maybe we're decide was trying
to take advantage of the side effects here of Spanish
by and then depending on the dose, it can completely
strip away the stomach lining. Yeah, there's a lot of
(15:08):
burning and uh. And when you're talking about an overdose,
you're talking about abdominal pain. Respiratory and heart problems, renal failure,
bloody urine convulsions, coma, and possibly death. Yeah, I think
about it making its way through the rest of the body,
not just the stomach um. It can affect the lining
of the uterus and it irritates that lining. But it's
that your irritation is sort of negligible when you compare
(15:32):
it to men, in whom it causes a great deal
of swelling. And that's where the erection comes into play. Yeah,
basically we're talking an allergic hell direction, we're talking a
non sexual priapism, so as you end up dealing with
with a lot of burning swelling down there that results
in an erection, but not really the kind of erection
(15:54):
that I feel like anybody reasonably wants to have. No.
I mean, it's like an anaphloctic response for your keenness,
right that can't be at all romantic or even you know, essential,
I mean, barely functional. I'm thinking, you know, like it's
just it's just it's a bad idea anyway anyway to
shake it. Yeah, and even a minor overdose of canard
(16:16):
and can lead to erections long enough to need medical intervention.
To uh to put them down. But you know what
it does for enough that there's actually one species that
is taking it so that they may secure some more
amorous flings in the future. And what I'm talking about
here is the male bustard bird. Oh yes, this is
(16:40):
a This is one of one of the birds that
that has some degree of of resistance to the canthard
and but uses it in a most interesting manner. The
males actually pick the blister beetles out, you know, of
array of possible food choices, and they do it to
reduce STDs and more importantly, to reduce to to to
(17:02):
watch away the appearance of STDs when picking out mates,
because they wanted to appear clean and disease free. According
to Discovery Magazines, uh seriously, Science blog quote, a white,
clean cloaca with no infection symptoms is an honest signal
of both resistance to canthardin and absence of parasites, and
represents a reliable indicator of the male quality to the
(17:25):
extremely choosy females. That's right, because the lady bustards actually
examine the male busterds cloaca before deciding to mate with him.
A little look, you know, under the hood. As it were. Yeah, yeah,
before taking it for a test run. So so there
you go. We just wanted to go out on a
positive note there and let you know that the male
(17:48):
bustards are are using it in the appropriate way are
probably the only ones who should be using besides the
actual beetles themselves. Um. And we wanted to do a
little public service announcement. If you're we're thinking about Spanish blood,
please do not. I cannot use it unless you are
a bustard bird looking to clean your kloeaka a bit uh.
In those cases, go ahead, um, or if you yourself
(18:11):
or a blister bug, I mean you should naturally occurring
chemical weapons as you see fit. Yeah. You know, we
talked about STD posters a while back, and I can't
help but think if animals, if the Animal Kingdom had
their own PR campaigns, what might those posters look like,
especially from the bustard birds. Keep your chloeca clean, yeah,
(18:31):
I would guess so. And for the rest of you, yeah,
just don't do Spanish flag because it's either this horrible
chemical irritant or it's just a bunch of vitamin B
three jens ng uh. And you know, maybe a little
horny goat we packaged in some sort of scandalous packaging
or at a very least like sugar and some dust. Yeah,
so it's there are better ways to go about curing
(18:54):
what ails. You. You know, the best way is that
using your noggin. Oh, you already know, like if you're
if you're trying to get in the mood, like wining
and dining your own mind is probably the way to go. Indeed,
and hey, if you would like to wine and dine
that brain of yours, I want to go to Stuff
to Pull your Mind dot com. That's where you'll find
all of our podcast episodes, including all of our Valentine's
(19:16):
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(19:37):
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Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. We
are continuing our assault on Valentine's Day Downtown exactly. We've
We've talked about kissing, We've talked about the color pink um.
(00:27):
Today we're talking about something a little different, something that's
a little less of a Valentine's Day staple. It's not
like a lingerie, it's not something that is advertised on
billboards come every February. We're talking about Spanish fly, an
aphrodisi act that is at once kind of mythic and
kind of has all this these fictional airs about it,
(00:49):
but at the same time is a definite real thing
that is fascinating in its own right, and often in
ways that you might not expect. Yeah, I mean, people
associate fish fly with afrotusi acts, right, this idea that
you know, someone just needs to have a bit of
it and all of a sudden they will fill amorous
and we'll discuss that. But yeah, you're right there. The the
(01:11):
the actual implications of Spanish fly itself very differently. When
is the earliest you ever heard any inkling of Spanish fly,
You know, I don't. I want to say, like middle
school is I have an idea of that. And I
also have an idea of tequila in the worm at
the end of the bot or the bottom of the
bottle is being part and parcel of that, which I
(01:34):
don't think exists either. Yeah, I feel like and maybe
you can relate to this. I feel like it might
have been referenced in kind of an off color reference
in some old timey cartoons, like I don't know if
it was something that I had some exposure to, and
because I feel like there was maybe a moment where
somebody had had a bottle labeled Spanish fly and it
(01:56):
showed up as a gag and something in another you know,
like it was that level of of unbelievable that it's
just some sort of like magic juice that that somebody
gives to another person and it makes them, uh you know,
wild and randy or something. Well, it's back I think
in the collective conscience because uh, as we know, Bill
Cosby allegedly has been accused of um giving his giving
(02:21):
people certain drugs um and then raping them and uh
he has a routine I believe in the sixties, Yeah,
from his sixty nine comedy album It's True, It's True.
And he also talks about it in his childhood yes, um.
And he he has referenced rufies or some sort of
(02:42):
rufies before and other interviews and someone and so forth. Um.
But he talks specifically about Spanish fly in this one
routine from the album It's True, It's True. Yeah, if
I remember correctly, in the bit he's he's talking about
as a kid hearing about it, which is very relatable
because I, you know, my earliest memories of hearing about
this thing are also in childhood, and and from a
(03:04):
childhood perspective, it sounds kind of just fanciful and weird
and maybe even attractive on some level, you know, like, oh,
this is this thing, and you know, and though off,
you give it to somebody and then suddenly they're all
lovey devy, like that's the very unreal version of it.
But then you you take it and you put it
into reality, you put it into an adult reality, and
you're talking about something that's really rather horrible and and
(03:27):
in in in the case with the allegations against Bill Cosby.
You also see that that that story of childhood taken
and then and then what happens when you look at
it from a very real adult standpoint. I mean it's
a it's just deplorable. Yeah, I mean, the the actual
thing that he says. He says, go to a party,
see five girls standing alone and that boy. If I
(03:48):
had a whole jug of Spanish way, I'd light that
corner up over there. Ha ha ha. So right, it's
a you know, hearing it now is it's a little
bit disconcerting, but it brings up the whole idea of
the Spanish fly and whether or not it's actually a
true aphrodisiac and what the deal is with it. And
I just want to point out that FDA study proved
(04:12):
that the chemical had no sexual effects on men or women,
and yet the myth of this continues to persist, and
how you define sexual effects kind of differs, and we'll
talk more about that later. All right, So what is it?
People are probably wondering, what is the Spanish fly? Is
it an actual fly? No, but it is. It is
(04:32):
a beetle, technically a blister beetle. To be a specific
They're about different species of blister beetle. But we tend
to collect this. Uh, this agent cantharadin from two specific species.
There's a European blister beetle called light of Asigatoria and
(04:52):
there's a North African blister beetle known as my lab
risk kikori. And uh, they secrete this. They secrete cantharit
and as a self defense, as a chemical weapon to
keep things from eating them. And this is the type
of insect that's it's brightly colored, long body, bright greens,
blue wing cover stripes. It's sending a clear message to
(05:15):
potential predators. Hey, if you eat me, bad things are
going to happen because I'm just laden with chemical weapons. Yeah.
And that canthar it in. It's a it's a turpin
and organic chemical compound. And they secrete it. The beatle
secrete it as this kind of milky looking fluid from
the joints in their legs. Very convenient. Yeah. Now this
(05:36):
is this doesn't have much to do with canthartin, but
it's pretty interesting as a side note. Um, these blister bugs,
they the adults lay eggs near the nest of the
solitary b and then these larval b lice as they
call them, feed on the eggs and food stores, and
they eventually grow into adulthood dropped to the ground, feed
on vegetation. And it's in this life then that they
(05:57):
have the full protection of the canthard and to keep
things from from meeting, most things from eating them. Because
it's worth noting that there are um some birds such
as the meadow lark, such as the bluebird scissor tailed flycatcher,
that are conferred and resistant and uh and make them
a part of their diet. Yeah. And there are accounts
(06:17):
though of some livestock eating them and actually being poisoned
by them. So most most animals steer clear, but as
you say, some of them can actually stave off the
effects of conferait in. Now we should probably talk about
how conferred in works in terms of the Beatles reproductive life.
(06:39):
This is very interesting. Yeah, And then in this we
get right into the Valentine's Day theme, like legitimately and
not in a weird creepy way, because of course Valentine's
is about, hey, here's a gift for the person I love,
you know, or failing that, the person that I want
to mate with. That sort of thing you know. Yeah,
like here's a box of chocolate, right, and is essentially
(07:00):
a pre nuptial offering, as we call it in the
animal world. I feel like we've we've talked about this
in the talked about this with orb weaving spiders, where
they say, here, here, here's a gift. Here's a here's
a gift that shows my you know, to anthropomorphize a bit. Here,
here's a gift that shows my my support for you.
Here is some some energy in the form of some
(07:22):
food or whatnot that will help you survive and help
our our offspring survive. Yeah, it's like, hey, we'll we'll mate, right,
here's a little bit of energy. In the case of
pyrochroid beetles, they're doing somewhat of the same thing as
as the male or weaving spiders. They're presenting a gift,
not so much for energy though, is more like protection.
(07:46):
And what happens is that the male beetles essentially hand
over a packet of sperm to the female when they're mating,
and she will fertilize her eggs and she can kind
of take her sweet time with whether or she does
this right. Um, the females can discard the packets that
don't please them, right, there's just not please me, bring
(08:07):
me another. Um. So, what crafty private chroid beetles do
to ensure that their gift of spirm is like really
highly prized and received, is that they produce bonus packs
of camper ridden and this this camphor written will allow
the females to cover her eggs with it, and then
(08:28):
that keeps those eggs safe for predators. So it's kind
of like if you were to give your your your
sweetie a handgun for Valentine's Day and say, here, take this,
protect yourself and our offspring with this lovely handgun. I
think they call that a Texas Valentine. A Texas Valentine, yes,
I mean it's probably a Georgia Valentine too for that matter.
(08:50):
So is the mating ritual kicks off? The pyrochoid male
actually secretes this gooey substance from a groove like structure
in its forehead. Uh. And then the female of course
tastes the gooy since and if she detects canthardin, then
she knows that this is the this is the guy
for her. If it's if it's not there, well then
then maybe she'll pass. Yeah. That's what I think is
(09:10):
so great about this is that, you know, maybe the
beetle titles up and says, hey, I've got a little
camphor it in package here for you, and she's like,
prove it, prove that you can secrete this, and then
out of his forehead it uzes and then she sniffed them.
It's great. This is good like Valentine's drama right here. So,
I mean, that's kind of hard the beat in terms
(09:31):
of a mating ritual. If you want to learn more
about that, check out this article Spanish flies a lure
ardor or armor by Janet Rolla from Science News. So
we're talking about canthardon that that powder you derive from
grinding up the the booster beetles essentially a chemical weapon
(09:52):
devised for the creature's defense. But as as we've discussed before,
humans are all about taking another creature's chemical weapon and
using it for their own advantage. We do it, and
everything from the spices on our food to indeed some
questionable aphrods as in the form of Spanish fly. Hippocrates
prescribed ground blister beetles as a treatment for dropsy. And
(10:15):
then you also have traditional Chinese medicine, using bliss for
beetles to treat piles, alterers and brabies and even warts.
There's another as far as it to use as um
an aphrodeziac or at least it's it's more recreational uses. Um,
there's there's some some interesting details from the life of
(10:38):
the Marquis assad Um s eighteen fourteen, if anyone who's
not familiar with him, French aristocrat, revolutionary, politician, philosopher and writer.
He was a free thinker, a free doer. He was randy,
he was he liked the ladies, he liked the men.
He uh, he liked everything. Uh and uh then he
(11:02):
had a lot of of course, a lot of scandals
in his life. Um, you know, pretty much constantly in
the In seventeen seventy two, Um, there was an incident
where he had engaged his uh, his servant latour to
find him some some prostitutes, and apparently the women in
question helped themselves to the marquees uh personal stash of
(11:26):
Spanish fly laden candies. And uh, since suddenly they're you know,
they're suffering upset stomachs. Uh, they fear they've been poisoned
and uh. Meanwhile, Dessad and the Littour flee the estates
of the king of Sardinia who wanted to have him arrested,
and that they end up being executed in effigy for
(11:48):
for this this crime. But essentially at the case, these
women are poisoned by the Spanish fly. Yeah, and they survived.
But I mean, as we'll discuss it a little bit,
they probably had they probably suffered pretty greatly depending on
the amount that he gave them. I mean, after all,
he was um sentenced to death or attempted murder. Yeah. Yeah,
(12:09):
So just that's just sort of an idea of just
how potent this is. I mean, it's a you know,
it's again it's the it's the the insects chemical weapon,
and if taken in small doses, presumably it's not gonna
kill anybody, but it's apparently very easy to to reach
that threshold of serious harm with this particular agent. Now,
this was also used in terminating pregnancy and um If
(12:33):
you look at the long history of um of abortion,
particularly before it was legalized, and you will see that
there are all sorts of accounts of different things that
may induce pregnancy termination. In the article leeches lie in
Spanish Fly by Kate Manning in the New York Times. Um,
(12:55):
she says, quote and talking about this sort of secret
coda of terminating and pregnancy, she says, quote French periodical
pills warranted to have the desired effect in all cases.
Was one such knowing ad that appeared in the Boston
Daily Times. In those ads spoke euphemistically of curing female
complaint or renovating or unblocking the womb. So what's interesting
(13:19):
about that is, and we'll talk more about the effects
on the human body, is that there was a sort
of wink, wink, Hey, this is this is a substance
that you could use if you have these sort of
female complaints. Yeah. Now, just to go back to Marquis
Assad for a moment, um, there was there's at least
one account that Marquis Assad would would would encourage prostitutes
(13:40):
to partake of these Spanish fly cookies because it would
make them a little gassy, and that he was into that. Um,
he was into gassy sexual relations. I mean, he was
into a lot of things. So I guess that was
you know, that's on the menu. Um, but these are
not this is not the primary desired of fact with
(14:01):
Spanish fly. Most of the accounts that you see generally,
the idea is that it's supposed to to fire up
one's lust or to provide a mail with an erection
when they're having difficulty achieving or sustaining that state. And
it does. But I feel like it's an erection that
you would never want if you if you haven't to
(14:23):
look at the descriptions of this. And let's just start
just even with, um, what it's like to have skin
contact with Spanish fly, because it's not called blister beetle
for nothing, right, Um, you get blisters, estering ones. If
you have contact with your eyes, it can cause blindness.
A deadly dose is only thirty milligrams, and one gram
(14:45):
is enough to cause symptoms in five thousand people. And
when you ingest it, that camphor it in inflames the
gastro intestinal tract, and that maybe we're decide was trying
to take advantage of the side effects here of Spanish
by and then depending on the dose, it can completely
strip away the stomach lining. Yeah, there's a lot of
(15:08):
burning and uh. And when you're talking about an overdose,
you're talking about abdominal pain. Respiratory and heart problems, renal failure,
bloody urine convulsions, coma, and possibly death. Yeah, I think
about it making its way through the rest of the body,
not just the stomach um. It can affect the lining
of the uterus and it irritates that lining. But it's
that your irritation is sort of negligible when you compare
(15:32):
it to men, in whom it causes a great deal
of swelling. And that's where the erection comes into play. Yeah,
basically we're talking an allergic hell direction, we're talking a
non sexual priapism, so as you end up dealing with
with a lot of burning swelling down there that results
in an erection, but not really the kind of erection
(15:54):
that I feel like anybody reasonably wants to have. No.
I mean, it's like an anaphloctic response for your keenness,
right that can't be at all romantic or even you know, essential,
I mean, barely functional. I'm thinking, you know, like it's
just it's just it's a bad idea anyway anyway to
shake it. Yeah, and even a minor overdose of canard
(16:16):
and can lead to erections long enough to need medical intervention.
To uh to put them down. But you know what
it does for enough that there's actually one species that
is taking it so that they may secure some more
amorous flings in the future. And what I'm talking about
here is the male bustard bird. Oh yes, this is
(16:40):
a This is one of one of the birds that
that has some degree of of resistance to the canthard
and but uses it in a most interesting manner. The
males actually pick the blister beetles out, you know, of
array of possible food choices, and they do it to
reduce STDs and more importantly, to reduce to to to
(17:02):
watch away the appearance of STDs when picking out mates,
because they wanted to appear clean and disease free. According
to Discovery Magazines, uh seriously, Science blog quote, a white,
clean cloaca with no infection symptoms is an honest signal
of both resistance to canthardin and absence of parasites, and
represents a reliable indicator of the male quality to the
(17:25):
extremely choosy females. That's right, because the lady bustards actually
examine the male busterds cloaca before deciding to mate with him.
A little look, you know, under the hood. As it were. Yeah, yeah,
before taking it for a test run. So so there
you go. We just wanted to go out on a
positive note there and let you know that the male
(17:48):
bustards are are using it in the appropriate way are
probably the only ones who should be using besides the
actual beetles themselves. Um. And we wanted to do a
little public service announcement. If you're we're thinking about Spanish blood,
please do not. I cannot use it unless you are
a bustard bird looking to clean your kloeaka a bit uh.
In those cases, go ahead, um, or if you yourself
(18:11):
or a blister bug, I mean you should naturally occurring
chemical weapons as you see fit. Yeah. You know, we
talked about STD posters a while back, and I can't
help but think if animals, if the Animal Kingdom had
their own PR campaigns, what might those posters look like,
especially from the bustard birds. Keep your chloeca clean, yeah,
(18:31):
I would guess so. And for the rest of you, yeah,
just don't do Spanish flag because it's either this horrible
chemical irritant or it's just a bunch of vitamin B
three jens ng uh. And you know, maybe a little
horny goat we packaged in some sort of scandalous packaging
or at a very least like sugar and some dust. Yeah,
so it's there are better ways to go about curing
(18:54):
what ails. You. You know, the best way is that
using your noggin. Oh, you already know, like if you're
if you're trying to get in the mood, like wining
and dining your own mind is probably the way to go. Indeed,
and hey, if you would like to wine and dine
that brain of yours, I want to go to Stuff
to Pull your Mind dot com. That's where you'll find
all of our podcast episodes, including all of our Valentine's
(19:16):
Day podcasts past and present. If you click on the
landing page for this episode, you'll find links to a
lot of those, uh, those older episodes, so be sure
to check those out, along with all the videos, blog
post links out to social media accounts, pictures of what
we look like, all that good stuff. Stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com. And if you have any thoughts
about this, please do let us know. You can send
(19:37):
us an email at blow the Mind at house to
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