I04 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



poverty and wretchednefs. Tho' Apulia 

 is one of the fineft and mod fertile pro- 

 vinces of the kingdom ot Naples, the in- 

 habitants are rather poorer than in the 

 others. They complained that the Jefu- 

 its, their mafters, were too hard upon 

 them. That fociety has very large pof- 

 felTions in that province, and of the very 

 beft of the land. 



As the efFecls of the (ling or bite of 

 the tarantula Teemed always very extra- 

 ordinary to' me, I took fome pains in in- 

 quiring into this affair in the places where 

 thefe bites were reported to be moll fre- 

 quent ; and found, from the befl. informa- 

 tion in different places, given me by men 

 of credit and capable of judging in fuch 

 an affair, that the difeafes which are faid 

 to proceed from thefe bites are. fuch as 

 are caufed by fummer-heats in all fouth' 

 ern countries. The reapers are mod 

 iubjecl to the fevers imagined to be cau- 

 fed by the bite of the tarantula, which, 

 according to the heat or temperature of 

 the feafon, are more or lefs violent. But 

 the general, and what may be called the; 



epidemica 



