( -I'-^ ) 



when the Spider is creeping into lioles, uhere it does not want to 

 Ipin its web, or while running along the ground, or after its prey. 

 When thefe lall mentioned four protuberances are put afide from 

 each other, there will be feen in tlie middle or fpace between them 

 four fmallerones, each furnilhed witli the like organs for fpinning 

 threads, but lefler in fize and fewer in number. 



Thcfe organs for fpinning, being by this means all exi)ofed to 

 view, exhibit the appearance, as it were, of a field, thick fet with 

 an incredible number of pointed parts, each producing one thread ; 

 but thefe pointed parts are not made gradually tapering from the 

 bafe to the point ; they are formed, as if one were to imagine a 

 fmall reed fomewhat tapering, having a flill fmaller one joined to its 

 taper end*, and this latter terminating in a point, which point, in 

 thefe organs I am now defcribing, is as fine as imagination can con- 

 ceive. 



Now if we lay it down as a fa6l, that a young Sj^ider which is 

 feveral hundred times Imaller than a full grown one, is furniflied 

 with the fame organs as the larger, and that, as the Spider, fo the 

 organs do by degrees grow proportionably larger, the necedary cor- 

 clufion is, that the threads fpun by a young Spider, are many hun- 

 dred times finer than thofe fpun by one full grown, which exquifite 

 flendernefs, it feems beyond the power of the human mind to form 

 a true idea of. 



I have given a reprefentation of fome of the organs, by which thefe 

 incredibly fmall and numerous threads are fpun, as nearly as the 

 Limner was able to draw them, when feen by the microfcope. And, 

 ^t fig- iii, RSTV, exhibits one of the four external parts or protu- 

 berances I have been defcribing ; this part, including all which with 

 it is reprefented in the figure, was not in its natural fize lb large as 

 a common grain of land, from whence fome judgment may be formed 

 how minute muft be thefe orgaiis, and how exquifitely fine the 

 threads w-hicli iflue from tliem. 



* See fig. 22. 



