xix. SPIDERS. 279 



fill that a spider should make so exquisite a web ! The 

 web-making is part of its natural dower. The particular 

 wonder of insect beauty or spider artifice is but an indi- 

 vidual gleam of the universal wonder-radiance of Nature. 

 Both structural beauty and fitness and unerring instinctive 

 performance we now believe to have been alike evolved 

 through natural selection and, perhaps, other agencies. 

 Does this take away from the wonder with which we 

 regard them ? Oh, shallow thought ! It deepens it a 

 thousandfold. 



As I have hinted above, it is difficult to get at the 

 mental faculties of creatures so far removed from our- 

 selves along a diverging branch of the tree of life, as are 

 the spiders. Somewhat may be done, however, by patient, 

 careful, and long-continued observation. And I propose 

 to give some account, largely in their own words, of the 

 valuable observations which have been made on certain 

 American spiders by George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham. 1 



The first experiments were directed towards ascertain- 

 ing whether spiders possess a sense of smell. When we 

 remember that it is through the organs of special sense 

 smell, touch, hearing, sight, &c., that a perceptual know- 

 ledge of the external world is acquired, it will be seen 

 how important it is to ascertain whether these faculties 

 of sense-perception exist in the lower animals. The plan 

 adopted to test the sense of smell in spiders, was to hold 

 a slender glass rod, eight inches long, in such a position 

 that one end closely approached the individual under 

 observation, noting what effect, if any, was produced, and 

 then to dip it into some strongly-scented oil or essence, 

 such as oil of cloves, oil of peppermint, oil of lavender, or 



1 The observations are published in the American Journal of Morphology, 

 vol. i. No 2. Dec. 1887. (London Agent, Edward Arnold.) 



