SPIDERS. 299 



some animal force acting like a syringe ; but as tlie state- 

 ment can be completely disproved by experiment, we sliall 

 only at present ask, in the words of Swammerdam — " how 

 can it be possible that a thread so fine and slender should 

 be shot out with force enough to divide and pass through 

 the air ? — is it not rather, ^^robable that the air would stop 

 its progress, and so entangle it and fit it to perplex the 

 spider's operations ?"* The opinion, indeed, is equally 

 improbable with another, suggested by Dr. Lister, that the 

 spider can retract her thread within the abdomen, after it 

 has been emitted. f De Geer]; very justly joins Swammer- 

 dam in rejecting both of these fancies, which, in our own 

 earlier observations upon spiders, certainly struck us as 

 plausible and true. There can be no doubt, indeed, that 

 the animal has a voluntary power of permitting the material 

 to escape, or stopping it at pleasure, but this power is not 

 projectile. 



3. " There are many people," says the Abbe de laPluche, 

 "who believe that the spider flies when they see her pass from 

 branch to branch, and even from one high tree to another ; 

 but she transports herself in this manner : she places herself 

 upon the end of a branch, or some projecting body, and 

 there fastens her thread; after which, with her two hind 

 feet, she squeezes her dugs (spinnerets), and presses out one 

 or more threads of two or three ells in length, which she 

 leaves to float in the air till it be fixed to some particular 

 place." § Without pretending to have observed this, Swam- 

 merdam says, " I can easily comprehend how spiders, with- 

 out giving themselves any motion, may, by only compress- 

 ing their spinnerets, force out a thread, which being driven 

 by the wind, may serve to waft them from one place to 

 another." 1 1 Others, proceeding upon a similar notion, give 

 a rather different account of the matter. " The sjiider," 

 says Bingley, " fixes one end of a thread to the place where 

 she stands, and then with her hind paws draws out several 

 other threads from the nipples, which, being lengthened 



* Book of Nature, part i. p. 25. f Hist. Anim. Anghaj, 4to. 

 X Memoires, vol. vii. p. 189. § Spectacle de la Nature, vol, i. 

 II Book of Nature, part i. p. 25. 



