70 GENERATION OF INSECTS 



from the external part of the body in general, as though 

 the material of the filaments were a kind of down, that 

 covered them all over like bark. Aristotle was also 

 wrong in instructing us that spiders bring forth live 

 worms instead of eggs, for I have invariably found the 

 contrary to be the case. And though others write that 

 spiders are generated from flying seeds and from rotten 

 filth, I cannot induce myself to credit them, especially as 

 they only give the popular belief in the matter as proof, 

 i. e., that spiders and their webs are to be found in new 

 houses, before the plaster on the walls is dry; but mark 

 that houses are not built in the twinkling of an eye, as 

 Alcina and Atlantus built them, in ancient times; there- 

 fore it is natural that the spiders should have found the 

 dust and refuse lime a good place for making their nests, 

 and for hiding, and on coming out, they could climb 

 up any high wall in a moment, and weave their webs 

 there. 



Another fabulous generation of spiders was given out 

 as true by various authors, among whom are Pietro 

 Andrea Mattiuoli, Castore Durante, and Fathers Kircher 

 and Fabri. Mattiuoli affirms that oak-galls produce spi- 

 ders as well as worms and flies ; he also says that all galls, 

 which have not been pierced, contain one of these three 

 kinds of small animals, from the nature of which he de- 

 duces a terrible prognostic, saying that flies in the galls in- 

 dicate war to occur in that year; if worms are found, the 

 harvest will be poor ; if spiders, there will be a pestilence. 

 Father Fabri laughs at this prognostic; as for myself, I 

 could easily cite many experiments to confute Mattiuoli, 

 for in the space of three or four years I have opened 

 more than twenty thousand galls, and have never found 

 a single spider inside, but only flies and gnats and worms, 



