2»«i ?. X. SiPT. I. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



173 



have used it much I find a contrariety of opinion as re- 

 spects its mode of operation. While some consider it as 

 liiglily stimulant, invigorating the force of the pulse, in- 

 creasing the temperature of the surface, and heightening 

 excitement generally, others, •witnessing no such effects, 

 are disposed to assort it with those remedies which seem 

 to do good chiefly hy soothing the agitations of the 

 system. I confess that I concur in the latter view of its 

 properties. 



" There is much difference in the web of the various 

 species of spider. That used in this city is collected in 

 cellars, and is probably the product of the common black 

 spider, which is to be generally met with in such dark 

 and damp places. I have satisfied myself that the web 

 found in light exposed situations, the product of the grey 

 spider, is inert, and also the web of the other when old. 

 The recent may be known bv its glutinous feel." — Vol. ii. 

 pp. 202-6. 



Dr. Jackson, in the v/ork referred to by. Dr. 

 Chapman, expresses his belief that spider's web 

 prevents the recurrence of febrile paroxysms 

 more abruptly and more effectually than bark, 

 arsenic, or any other remedy with which he was 

 acquainted. If given during the intermission — 



" The return of the paroxysm," says he, " was prevented 

 — if given under the first symptoms of a commencing 

 paroxysm the symptoms were suppressed, and the course 

 of the paroxysm was so much interrupted that the dis- 

 ease for the most part lost its characteristic sj'mptoms. 

 If it was not given until the paroxysm was advanced in 

 progress, the symptoms of irritation, viz. tremors, start- 

 ings, spasms, and deliriums — if such existed as forms of 

 febrile action — were usually reduced in vi6lence, some- 

 times entirely removed. In this case sleep, calm and 

 refreshing, usaally followed the sudden and perfect re- 

 moval of pain and" irritation." 



[n Devonshire cobweb is a popular application 

 to a bleeding surface ; and I have myself seen it 

 stanch the flow from leech-bites when caustic and 

 other potent means had been tried in vain : — 



" The cobweb, applied to a bleeding surface," says Dr. 

 Jackson, " occasions a very sharp and transient pain — the 

 bleeding instanth' ceases." . ..." It has also been ap- 

 plied locally under my own eye," writes Dr. Jackson, "to 

 idcerated and irritable surfaces with singular good effect. 

 At first the pain which it occasioned was sharp, but it 

 was momentary, and the surfaces which had been painful, 

 irritable, and untractable to other applications for weeks 

 or months, were healed up in the course of two or three 

 days at farthest. The experiment was made on super- 

 ficial sores only." 



In reference to Mr. Redmond's Note (2°^ S. ix. 

 138.) I would append a final quotation from Dr. 

 Jackson : — 



" The cobweb here recommended is the produce of the 

 black spider, which inhabits cellars, barns, and stables ; 

 that which is found upon hedges in autumn does not possess 

 the same power if it be actually of the same nature" 



Of the use of the spider itself I know nothing. 



A complete history of the animal substances 

 which have been employed as remedies by the 

 public or the faculty would form an interesting 

 chapter to the curiosities of medical practice. 

 Millipedes, or woodlice, are said to be active 

 dii^retics, and have been largely employed by 



orthodox practitioners. The bug, about which so 

 much has recently appeared in " N. & Q.," is re- 

 puted to possess similar powers as the Spanish 

 fly, being a vesicant when applied to the skin, and 

 a diuretic and irritant of the urinary organs. 



W. MuNK, M.D. 

 Finsbury Place. 



Under a notice of "Amulets" in the Encyclo- 

 poedia Metropolitana I find the following extract 

 from the Diary of Elias Ashraole : — 



" I took early in the morning a good dose of elixir, and 

 hung three spiders about my neck, and they drove my 

 ague away. Deo gratias ! " 



" Spiders and their webs," says Pettigrew, " have often 

 been recommended for the cure of this malady." 



Burton gives the following : — 



" Being in the country, in the vacation time, not many 

 years since, at Lindlyin Leicestershire, my father's house, 

 I first observed this amulet of a spider in a nutshell, 

 wrapped in silk, so applied for an ague by my mother . . 

 .... I could see no warrant for it, ' Quid aranea cum 

 Febre?' For what antipathy? till at length rambling 

 amongst authors (as I often do), I found this very medi- 

 cine in Dioscorides, approved by Mattliiolus, repeated by 

 Aldrovandus, cap. de Aranea, lib. de Insectis." — Ibid. 



F. Phillott. 



SIGNS AT MOXKHEATII, CHESHIRE. 

 (2'"i S. X. 46. 79.) 



The legend alluded to by J. H. L. is told by 

 Sir Walter Scott in his Letters on Demonology 

 and Witchcraft, p. 136., and a similar tale is 

 given at p. 138., but Sir Walter does not I'elate 

 the Cheshire legend. It is given, however, in the 

 Mirror, IsTo. 475., for Feb. 5. 1831; and as it 

 may very appropriately be preserved in " N. & 

 Q.," the following transcript has been made from 

 the Mirror : — 



" The scene of the Cheshire legend is placed in the 

 neighbourhood of Macclesfield, in that countj', and the 

 sign of a public house on Monk's Heath may have ar- 

 rested the attention of many travellers from London to 

 Liverpool. This village hostel is known by the designa- 

 tion of the Iron Gates. The sign represents a pair of 

 ponderous gates of that metal, opening at the bidding of 

 a figure, enveloped in a cowl ; before whom kneels 

 another, more resembling a modern j-eoman than one of 

 the 12th or 13th century, to which period this legend 

 is attributed. Behind' this person is a white horse 

 rearing, and in the background a view of Alderley Edge. 

 The story is thus told of the tradition to which the sign 

 relates : — 



" ' The Iron Gates, or the Cheshire Enchanter. 



" ' A farmer from Mobberley was riding on a white 

 horse over the heath which skirts Alde^'lcy Edge. Of 

 the good qualities of his steed he was justly proud; and 

 while stooping down to adjust its mane, previously to 

 his offering it for sale at Macclesfield, he was surprised 

 by the sudden starting of the animal. On looking up he 

 perceived a figure of more than common height, en- 

 veloped in a cowl, and extending a stafl' of black wood 



