Simón Bolívar y las cantáridas / Simon Bolivar and the cantharides

ABSTRACT

Simon Bolivar, The Liberator, did not trust medical care and if he ever requested a doctor, it seems to have been mainly politically motivated. Unfortunately his fears seem to have been correct as his death was accelerated by Dr. Revenand, a man whose medical title is yet under discussion, who applied an extract of cantharides, a beetle known as "the Spanish fly", employed generally as an aphrodisiac, over Bolivar's neck region. According to popular belief of the time, cantharidin, the insect's active principle, reduced "the excess of humours", such as cerebrospinal fluid, plasma, "pituita" and others. Cantharidin has severe adverse effects and was for sure the origin of great suffering for many unfortunate patients in the past.