The Tarantulas 
11 
pion. However, there seems to be no doubt that most of the accounts 
refer to the spider known as Lycosa tarantula. 
There is no need to enter into further details here regarding the 
supposed virulence of these forms, popular and the older medical 
literature abound in circumstantial accounts of the terrible effects of 
the bite. Fortunately, there is direct experimental evidence which 
bears on the question. 
Fabre induced a common south European wolf-spider, Lycosa 
narbonensis, to bite the leg of a young sparrow, ready to leave the 
nest. The leg seemed paralyzed as a result of the bite, and though 
the bird seemed lively and clamored for food the next day, on the 
third day it died. A mole, bitten on the nose, succumbed after thirty- 
six hours. From these experiments Fabre seemed justified in his 
conclusion that the bite of this spider is not an accident which man 
can afford to treat lightly. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the 
experiments, or in the symptoms detailed, to exclude the probability 
that the death of the animals was the result of secondary infection. 
As far back as 1693, as we learn from the valuable account of 
Robert, (1901), the Italian physician, Sanguinetti allowed himself to 
be bitten on the arm by two tarantulas, in the presence of witnesses. 
The sensation was equivalent to that from an ant or a mosquito bite 
and there were no other phenomena the first day. On the second day 
the wound was inflamed and there was slight ulceration. It is clear 
that these later symptoms were due to a secondary infection. These 
experiments have been repeated by various observers, among whom 
may be mentioned Leon Dufour, Josef Erker and Heinzel, and with 
the similar conclusion that the bite of the Italian tarantula ordinarily 
causes no severe symptoms. In this conclusion, Robert, though 
firmly convinced of the poisonous nature of some spiders, coincides. 
He also believes that striking symptoms may be simulated or arti¬ 
ficially induced by patients in order to attract interest, or because 
they have been assured that the bite, under all circumstances, caused 
tarantism. 
The so-called Russian tarantula, Trochosa singoriensis (fig. 7), is 
much larger than the Italian species, and is much feared. Robert 
carried out a series of careful experiments with this species and his 
results have such an important bearing on the question of the venom¬ 
ous nature of the tarantula that we quote his summary. Experi¬ 
menting first on nearly a hundred living specimens of Trochosa 
singoriensis from Crimea he says that: 
