APPENDIX. 361 



few minutes after being bitten. Of coui'se, however, experiments of this 

 kind are greatlj' invalidated by the fact that it cannot be determined 

 whether the death of the insects resulted from poison, or from the mu- 

 tilation produced by the entrance of so formidable a weapon as a spider's 

 fangs. 



Dr. Alfred Duges gives an account of a little girl patient who had 

 been bitten by one of those enormous spiders, qi;ite common in Guanajuato, 

 Mexico, which Mr. Leon Becker has named Metriopelma breyeri. The 

 wound presented an oblong, tumefied border, about three lines high, of a 

 livid violaceous color, filled with a serosity which he was not able to ex- 

 amine. The centre of the tumor was concave, and filled with red pus. 

 Eight days after the accident there was little pain, but no general symp- 

 toms. Dr. Duges was not able to follow up the case, but thinks that if 

 there had been any serious consequences of the bite the child would have 

 been brought back to him for further treatment.^ 



1 " Insect Life," Vol. II., No. 2, 1889, page 47. 



