96 COIIPARISONS OF STRUCTURE IN ANIMALS. 



fluous threads and coils them into a ball to be 

 thrown away; by this apparatus, she brushes 

 away the dust from her downy body, or cleans 

 her network. From the delicacy of the opera- 

 tions performed by the spider in constructing 

 her meshes, whether of close or open work, 

 one cannot but think that the sense of touch 

 is called into exercise, and that it is seated at 

 least in the clawed joints of the limbs ; even in 

 the hunting spiders, which make no webs, and 

 roam about in search of prey, upon which they 

 dart like a tiger, their very mode of capturing 

 their victims would seem to argue the same. 

 We cannot, indeed, doubt that they possess a 

 sense of touch, but to what extent, or how 

 modified, we cannot tell ; there is, in fact, 

 something in the senses and instincts of spiders 

 and insects generally beyond oiu' comprehen- 

 sion. They perform labours which astonish 

 us, and they, in many cases, act as if imder 

 the guidance of reason, rather than of instinct. 

 In a certain sense, they are highly elevated in 

 the scale of being, while in other respects, they 

 are far remote from animals vnth a brain and 

 well-developed nervous system. In some cases 

 the transfixion of their bodies occasions no 

 symptoms of pain — they will thus eat and live ; 



