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of summer, because it is not very easy to get the skins to be set and firm unless 

 they are dried quickly. Of course with kitchen ranges, such as we have now, or 

 a very warm corner near an open fire, if it be free from dust, or a bell glass of 

 large capacity so as to scatter the moisture quickly, the setting may be done fairly 

 well. However, let us suppose we have a good sized spider dead, and we want to 

 keep him. We should have need of a finely pointed and light pair of scissors, 

 curved or straight as the case may be, a blow-pipe and camel-hair brush, and 

 forceps. Cut the under part of the spider along the abdomen nearly its whole 

 length, so that the contents of the abdomen may be removed, which may be done 

 by gentle and regular squeezing. This is to be done until yon see from underneath 

 the abdomen the beautiful colouring of the spider above, when by means of the 

 forceps and camel hair brush you have removed all the internal matter, of course 

 having used the blow-pipe to distend the animal. The great mistake peojjle make 

 in mounting consists in the fact that they cleanse the whole of the entrails, and 

 even damage the skin, which is a delicate one, above them. For it should be re- 

 membered that all the colouring one sees in spiders is encased between two skins, and 

 of course to damage either of these skins is to interfere with the pigments between 

 them. Corrosive sublimate may well be used for the spiders kept in a cabinet, 

 mixed with spirits of wine and camphor water. Thus far, we have only spoken 

 of creatures for the cabinet, nor should we pass them by without saying that 

 arrangements for the placing of their feet are desirable. They may be done 

 similarly to the blocks or pads used by entomologists for butterflies and 

 moths. In addition to the dry process for spiders, there is also what may be 

 termed a wet one. This consists in a bountiful supply of wide mouthed bottles 

 or test tubes, and, after setting the spider, which may take some ten days or 

 a fortnight, immerse it permanently in the bottle which must, of course, be 

 wide enough to take the whole creature. Suspended from the cork or 

 stopper of the bottle, the creature may be kept in spirits of wine for 

 examination. 



Whilst these creatures are so voracious, it will be in keeping if we examine 

 the digestive apparatus they have. Mons. Plateau gives us to understand 

 that the dipneumonous spiders have such a small passage for the (lisopliagus 

 and pharynx that capillary force makes their food enter the buccal intestine, 

 it is then urged forward by the expansion of the suction organ, then 

 forced forwards into the middle intestine by the contraction of this organ and 

 cannot return. The food becomes mixed, as it passes along, with pharyngeal 

 secretion. From a mechanical view, the cceca in the middle intestine are 

 not vigorously active, but the reverse. The ccecal secretions, moreover, are 

 not acid. In this respect, they are unlike the gastric juices of man and 

 animals. The gland in the abdomen— which is generally yellow and slightly 

 acid— has in it fine granules, fat globules, and epithelial cells, and is the 

 principal agent in the digestion of the starchy, fatty, and albuminous matter. 

 This agent is different from the pepsine of vertebrates, and when to it is applied 

 a .slight trace of hydrochloric acid it stops instead of increasing the action, 

 whilst carbonate of soda has the contrary effect. This liquid quickly converts 



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