BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 69 



human beings has no doubt been greatly exaggei-ated, and by far the great- 

 est number of species are harmless to the vast majority of men ; neverthe- 

 less, there is no reason to doubt that a few species secrete a poisonous fluid 

 which is unusually virulent in its action upon men, producing painful, 

 serious, and, rarely, even fatal wounds. These exceptions are so few that 

 they give no warrant, or the very slightest, for the almost universal dread 

 of spiders of all sorts and sizes. Man has no more and probably much 

 less reason to fear injury from these animals than from ordinary irritating 

 insects, and on the other hand is immensely their debtor by their services 

 • in holding in check the increase of the insect hordes. 



It will suflice here to note one well authenticated instance of injurious 

 results from spider poison, as reported by the distinguished arachnologist. 



Professor Bertkau, of Bonn. This naturalist has recently found 

 Professor qj^ grass and leaves, near Bingen on the Rhine, a number of 

 Bertkau s gpg^l^g of Chiraianthiflm nutrix, which occurs also in Switzer- 

 eiST" ^'Mvi, France, and Italy, and has assured himself that the species 



is poisonous. He was bitten on his finger ends thre^ times by 

 these spiders. The pain was severe, burning, and extended almost instan- 

 taneously over the arm and to the breast, and was most intense in the 

 wound itself and in the armfnts. On the second morning after the second 

 bite the pain disappeared, but returned upon pressure of tlie bitten spot, 

 and changed to an itching sensation. When lie was bitten again, four days 

 later, both the pain and afterward the itching, especially, returned in the 

 first two bites, and this time continued for almost a fortnight, when all 

 unusual feeling had disappeared, while the later bites, which had festered, 

 were still visible. The results immediately following the bite were a slight 

 swelling and inflammation, which gradually disappeared. It is highly 

 satisfactory to find a case of this kind described by a careful and distin- 

 guished specialist like Professor Bertkau, and indubitably traced to a defi- 

 nite species, instead of attributed to the inevitable and indefinite black 

 spider. 



Per contra, a well known fellow citizen, and intelligent associate of our 

 Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Mr. Francis R. Welsh, thus 



writes me, apropos of the observations contained in my first vol- 

 PerCon- ^^^^^^, "When I was a small boy one of my friends and myself 



used to catch, carry about, and tease spiders with impunity. I 

 was never bitten, but my friend was once by a ' black spider '—you know 

 how vaguely the term is used. I can only say that it was almost cer- 

 tainly not an Orbweaver, but was probably either a Tubeweaver or Wan- 

 derer. The spider, as well as I can remember^ was about two inches long 

 when fully extended. The bite simply caused a little inflammation, and 

 can be best compared to a severe mosquito bite." 



It is probable that this expresses the ordinary efFect of a wound in- 

 flicted by the indigenous species of this geographical province; while that 



