S9 Same Acpaunt of the late 



faw people who ate fpiders, and, from the experiments which 

 he made, he does not believe them to be poifonous. Dr. 

 Fairfax is of the fame opinion. Clerk and Roefel maintain, 

 that fpiders are not fo venomous as is fuppofed, fince many 

 perfons fwallow them. It is related by the Peintre Natu- 

 ralijle, that a man pretty far advanced in life ate all the 

 fpiders which he found, and that they fervcd him as a pur- 

 gative. He fpread them on a flice of bread, as if they had 

 been excellent marmalade. The fame naturalift confutes the 

 popular error, that the fpider is able, by its pricking, to kill 

 the toad. He faw nothing of the kind, though he made 

 various experiments on that fubjeft. 



[To be concluded in the next Number.] 



XVI. Some Account of the late Mark Eleazar Block, 

 of Berlin. 



M. 



.ARK ELEAZAR BLOCH, a Jewi{h phyfician efia- 

 bliflicd at Berlin, and well known by his Natural Hiftory of 

 Fifties, vi-as born at Anfpach, in Franconia, of very poor pa- 

 rents. His father, who was exceedingly devout, fpcnt his 

 whole time in reading the Bible and the Talmud ; while hi? 

 mother, by felling old clothes, and other things of the like 

 kind, gained enough to maintain her hufband and children, 

 M. Bloch, at the age of nineteen, could not read German, 

 and did not know a fingle word of Latin. He had read only 

 a few Rabbinical books, and fpoke a kind of Franconiar* 

 gibberilh mixed with the Judaic jargon. A Jevvifli furgeon, 

 fettled at Hamburgh, having taken him into his houfe to in- 

 ftruft his children, he learned good German by hearing the 

 gazettes read, and afterwards by ftudying the language. H(f 

 Hved fo economically that he faved from his fcanty falary as 

 much as enabled him to pay for inftruction in the Latin, 

 which he was taught by a ftudent as poor as himfelf. He 

 acquired, at the 'ame time, fome knowledge of furgery ; and, 

 as he had relations at Berlin, he repaired to that city to ftudy 

 anatomy. Having furmounted various difficulties, and got 

 himfelf admitted as Dodior in the Univerfity of Francfort, 

 7 he 



