cantharides

noun

1. (uncountable)Spanish fly, Lytta vesicatoria (syn. Cantharis vesicatoria).
2. (uncountable)Spanish fly; a vesicant extracted from the beetle, popularly held to have aphrodisiac properties.

   “I can make the most subtle sauces yield up their secret—whether it be white arsenic, rosalgar, mercury sublimate, or cantharides.”

   “Madame de Pompadour used tincture of cantharides to regain the love of Louis XV.”

   “Speaking her name, it was as if he spake pure cantharides. ‘Quick,’ she panted. ‘There is time before they are all about. Again.’”

   “It’s lucky that Carol had taken the precaution of obtaining some cantharides; without them the evening might have been a dead loss.”

   “Basically Louis's drug dealer and pimp, Richelieu, known for opium recipes to fit all occasions, is also credited with the introduction into France of the cantharides, or Spanish fly.”