STUDY VII. 35 



After all, Nature has placed other infeds near 

 us, which deftroy them ; thefe are the fpiders *. 

 I have heard of an old officer, who being very- 

 much incommoded with bugs, at the Hofpital of 

 the Invalids, permitted the fpiders to multiply 

 round his bed, and thereby got the better of that 

 naufeous vermin. This remedy, I am aware, will 

 appear to many perfons worfe than the difeafe. But 

 I believe it poffible to find others more agreeable, 

 in perfumes and oily eflences ; at leaft, I have re- 

 marked, that the odour of various kinds of aro- 



* I prefume that it is a particular fpecies of fpider : for I am 

 perfuaded that there are as many fpecies of thefe as there are of 

 infeéls to be deftroyed. They do not all expand nets ; fome 

 tatch their prey fairly in the chace ; others fucceed by lying in 

 annbufcade. I have feen one in Malta of a very fingular cha- 

 raéler, and which is to be found in every houfe of that ifland. 

 Nature has beftowed on this fpecies of fpider the refemblance of 

 a fly, in the head and fore part of the body. When flie perceives 

 a Ûy on the wall, fhe makes her firft approaches in great hafte, 

 taking care always to maintain the higher dation. When fhe 

 has got within five or fix inches of her objeft, flie advances very 

 flow'ly, prefenting to it a treacherous refemblance ; and when 

 file has got within the diftance of two or three inches, flie makes 

 a fudden fpring on her prey. This violent leap, made on a per- 

 pendicular plané, muft furely precipitate her to the ground. 

 No fuch thing. You find her again f^ill on the wall, whether 

 fhe has made good her blow or milTed it ; for preyioufly to this 

 great effort, fhe had affixed a cord a- top, by which to warp her- 

 felf up again. Cartefian Philofophers, will you pretend, after 

 this, to pcrfift in maintaining that animals are merely ma- 

 chines ! 



p a njatic 



