To treat with cantharidin or to cause the effects of cantharidin poisoning; to create blistering using blister-beetle preparations.
From 'cantharidin' plus the suffix '-ize' meaning 'to cause to become' or 'to subject to.' A medical term that became standardized in 19th-century pharmaceutical literature.
When doctors 'cantharidized' a patient's arm, they'd essentially be creating a controlled chemical burn to treat everything from rheumatism to epilepsy—it was painful but patients trusted it because they could see the results!
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