CHAPTER lY. 



WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS— SUNDRY SUPERSTITIONS- 

 COMMERCIAL VALUE OF SPIDER SILK. 



I. 



There is perhaps no opinion concerning spiders that is more widely 

 disseminated and popularly believed than that they have the power to prog- 

 nosticate weather changes. As long ago as the days of Pliny the 

 Weather j^otion was entertained. That author affirmed that prognostica- 

 .. z.- tions may Ije based upon the spider's behavior. For example, 

 when a river is about to swell the spider will suspend its web 

 higher than usual. In calm weather these creatures do not sj^in their 

 ordinarj' webs, but when it is cloudy they do so, and therefore a great 

 number of cobwebs is a sure sign of rainy weather. ^ 



An interesting and romantic incident, based upon this supposed faculty, 

 is associated with the wars succeeding the French Revolution. Quatremer 

 Disjonval, a Frenchman by birth, was an adjutant general in Holland w'ho 

 took an active part on the side of the Dutch patriots when they revolted 

 against the Stadtholder. It happened to him to be captured and con- 

 demned to twenty-five years imprisonment at Utrecht. Here for eight 

 years he relieved the tediovts confinement by many curious observations 

 upon his cell companions, the spiders. Among other matters he discovered 

 that they were in the highest degree sensitive to approaching changes in 

 the atmosphere, and that their retirement and reappearance, their weaving 

 and general habits were intimately connected with weather changes. He 

 became wonderfully accurate in reading these living bai'ometers, so much 

 so that he could jtrognosticate the approach of clear weather from ten to 

 fourteen days before it set in. 



This ability served him a higli advantage when the troops of the French 

 republic overran Holland in the winter of 1794. They kept pushing for- 

 ward over the ice with the assurance of ultimate victory, when a 

 Quatre- gulden thaw in early December threatened the destruction of the 

 1 whole army unless it w'ere instantly withdrawn. The French 

 generals were seriously thinking of accepting a sum offered by 

 the Dutch to withdraw' their troops, when Disjonval sent them a message 

 advising against such action. He had hoped that the success of the repub- 

 lican army might lead to his release, and therefore sent a letter to the 



' Pliny, Natural History of Animals, Chapter XI., section xxiv. 



(77) 



