DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 127 



those which every where force themselves upon our no- 

 tice, and are viewed with general disgust. I mean the 

 numerous family of Arachne, the insidious spiders. Few 

 of these, however, are really personal assailants of man. 

 The principal is that which has given rise to so much 

 discussion, and has so much employed the pens of natu- 

 ralists and physicians the famous Tarentula (Lycosa 

 Tarentula). The effects ascribed to its wounds, and 

 their wonderful cure supposed to be wrought by music 

 and dancing, have long been celebrated: but after all 

 there seems to have been more of fraud than of truth in 

 the business ; and the whole evil appears to consist in 

 swelling and inflammation. Dr. Clavitio submitted to be 

 bitten by this animal, and no bad effects ensued ; and 

 the Count de Borch, a Polish nobleman, bribed a man 

 to undergo the same experiment, in whom the only result 

 was a swelling in the hand, attended by intolerable itch- 

 ing. The fellow's sole remedy was a bottle of wine, 

 which charmed away all his pain without the aid of pipe 

 and tabor a . 



There is however a spider (Theridium 13-guttatuni) 

 the bite of which is said to be very dangerous, and even 

 mortal. Thiebautde Berneaud, in his Voyage to Elba b 9 

 affirms that in the Volterrano he knew that several coun- 

 try people and domestic animals died in consequence 

 of it. And according to Mr. Jackson, a spider, called 

 there the Tendaraman, is found in Marocco which has 

 venomous powers equally formidable. The bite of this 

 insect, which is about the size and colour of a hornet 

 but rounder, and spins a web so fine as to be almost in- 

 visible, is said to be so poisonous that the person bitten 



* Amoreux, 217-226. See also 67-70. b p. 31. 



