CANTERUS, WILLIAM, an eminent linguist and philologist, born at Utrecht in 1541. He studied at Louvain and Paris under Valerius and Aratus, and, after visiting the German and Italian universities, retired to Louvain, where he died in 1575. He was familiar with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Italian, and German literature, and published several works, which deserve notice as almost the earliest specimen of scientific criticism and philosophy. These are, Novæ Lectiones, 8vo, Basle, 1564; Aristidis Orationes, fol., Basle, 1566; Nota, scholia, emendationes, et explicationes in Euripidem, Sophoclem, Æschylum, Ciceronem, &c. (See his Life, in Melchior Adam's Collection.) His brother Theodore (born 1545, died 1617), was also a scholar and critic of some eminence. His critical works are published in Gruter's Thesaurus Criticus.
CANTHARIDES (καθάρσις), or Spanish flies, are used as the common vesicatory or blistering-plaster. The largest are found in Italy, but the best come from Spain. See ENTOMOLOGY.