DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 127 



that he saw in Plumier's collection, wliicii appears to 

 have been eighteen inches in length, and three quar- 

 ters of an inch in width, having ninety-five legs on each 

 side, the first eight of wliich are arraed with double 

 claws, and two inches of the tail being without legs. 

 It may form a distinct genus, and is probably a native 

 of South America. Yet even this monstrous insect is 

 nothing to those at Carthagena, mentioned by Uiloa, 

 (if indeed we may credit his account, or if his trans- 

 lator has not mistaken his meaning,) which sometimes 

 exceeded a yard in length and five inches in breadth ! 

 The bite of this gigantic serpent-like creature, he 

 tells us, is mortal, as well it may, if a timely remedy 

 be not applied. From its cylindrical form it should be 

 a Jukis''. 



In this catalogue of noxious insects I must not omit 

 those which every where force themselves upon our no- 

 tice, and are viewed with general disgust. I mean the 

 numerous family of Arachne, the insidious spiders. Few 

 of these, however, are really personal assailants of man. 

 The principal is that which has given rise to so much 

 discussion, and has so much employed the pens of na- 

 turalists and physicians — the famous Tarantula. {Ly- 

 cosia Tarantula, Walck.) The effects ascribed to its 

 wounds, and their wonderful cure supposed to be 

 wrought by music and dancing, have long been cele- 

 brated : but after all there seems to have been more of 

 fraud than of truth in the business; and the whole evil 

 appears to consist in swelling and inflammation. Dr. 

 Clavitio submitted to be bitten by this animal, and no 

 bad effects ensued ; and the Count de Borch, a Polish 



* Ulloa's Voyage, i. 61. 



