125 A curfory pl.ew offome of the 



Merian has given a figure of the large hairy fpider of Gua- 

 java, which hves on the colibris. 



Brogiani affures us, that in Etruria there is a kind of pha- 

 langium which refides in the earth, the puncture of which 

 occafions violent f\'mptoms ; fuch as phrenitis, vomiting, 

 gangrene in the wounded part, or exanthemata. Sheep alfo 

 have died in confcquence of being punftured by this infeft. 

 Brogiani does not here alhide to the tarantula, as he treats 

 of that infeft feparately. The Italian journals, fome time 

 ago, announced that a large kind of fpider had occafioned 

 great ravage in the fields of Volterra, in Tufcany. It at- 

 tacked the reapers, and, by its punfture, occafioned violent 

 pain and convulfive movements in all the limbs. Nothing 

 of the like kind is to be apprehended in France, except in 

 fome cantons daring the dog-days. An enlightened natu- 

 ralifi, the Chevalier de Lamanon, fays_, that in the month of 

 .fune 1783 the drought and heat were fo great in Provence, 

 that fpiders, which in general are not venomous, occafioned 

 by their bite fevere difeafes, which had a great refemblance 

 to thoi'e occafioned by the bite of the tarantula. In ordinary 

 cafes of being bit or pun6lured by fpiders, it will be fuffi- 

 cient to wa(h the wounded part with brine, to apply theriac, 

 and to prefcribe one or two dofes internally. The frefli leaves 

 of fage, or thofe of the plantain, have been recommended as 

 topics, and wafhing with vinegar. Recourfe alfo may be had 

 to volatile alkali. 



VI. A curfory Viezu of fome of the late Dfcoveries in. 



Science * . 



MATHEMATICS, 



L. 



th PLACE, in his Mecanlque Cehfe, has confidcred ihc 

 fyfem of the world as a grand problem of mechanics, which 

 he has endeavoured tO:refolve. For this reafon he treats in 

 the firfl; book on the general principles of equilibrium and 

 motion. He gives a rigorous demonftration of the principle 



* Fitim the Journal de PinJ'iqiie, an. 8. 



of 



