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with compunction, changed the rope into a thread and the maiden 

 into a spider. And that was why spiders were, pre-eminently, 

 the spinners. 



With respect to the derivation of the name. Dr. Dallinger 

 said that spider and spinster meant much the same thing, 

 etyraologically. Built expressly for the purpose of spinning, 

 the spider was the most specialised creature known. He 

 called her a creature because she was not an insect. An 

 insect went through the larva and chrysalis stages, whereas 

 a spider was always a spider. There were two groups of 

 spiders, sedentary and wandering, the sedentary catching their 

 prey by means of snares made with wonderful ingenuity, 

 while the wandering variety, though beautiful weavers, did not 

 make snares, and literally had no place of abode. Of the seden- 

 tary spiders, some wove their webs in a circular shape, some in 

 lines, some in tubes, and some in tunnels. The wandering 

 spiders were divided into those who walked sideways, like a crab, 

 and those who leaped on their prey. By means of magic lantern 

 slides, the majority so beautiful that they evoked spontaneous 

 bursts of applause, the Lecturer gave illustrations of these various 

 types. Particular interest centred in the tunnel spider, over 

 which the Lecturer waxed quite enthusiastic. This creature dug 

 a tunnel into the ground from six inches to two feet deep, and 

 lined the sides with silk with perfect regularity. For a lid it 

 wielded together some forty layers of silk and clay, and hinged 

 it over the top of this funnel. When closed, the presence of the 

 aperture could not be seen, so perfectly did the lid fit. To 

 further secure the lid, the spider drilled holes in the sides, and, 

 when attacked, drove its claws into these holes to act like bolts. 



"Do these spiders think," asked the Lecturer ? One might 

 almost fancy they did ; and, to emphasise the point, he told of a 

 spider which, when leaping a chasm, or performing some other 

 dangerous feat, fastens a thread to her starting point so that she 

 might have a rope to hang by, and climb up again should she 

 miss her footing. 



With the aid of diagrams. Dr. Dallinger proceeded to explain, 

 in the clearest way, the internal structure of the spider, and the 

 process by which she spun her silk, a structure so marvellous 

 in its elaborateness and perfection of details, as to put to the 

 blush even the intricate machinery used in modern manufactures. 

 It was a section of the lecture that might easily have become 

 very dull, but, in Dr. Dallinger's hands, it was one of absorbing 

 interest. 



Even more fascinating was the detailed description of how 

 a spider builds its web and the ingenuity and engineering know- 

 ledge it displays in overcoming difficulties. He described how, 

 in bridging over an intervening space, it waits until a current of 



