CORRESPONDENCE 183 



had kept for a long time experimentally without 



food. He writes : 



" BANFF, November 28, 1852. 



"You will see by one of the printed slips of 

 paper which I have taken the liberty of enclosing 

 along with this, that I have in my possession an 

 animal which has lived for a considerable length of 

 time without food. The fact of which the printed 

 paper already alluded to is a copy was published 

 in the Banffshire Journal about seven weeks ago. 

 Since then I have been almost worried to death about 

 the affair. I have had the honour of being de- 

 nominated an ' ass ' for supposing that any creature 

 could live so long without food. I have likewise 

 had the pleasure of being branded with the laudable 

 title of ' fool ' because I could not, and cannot yet, 

 swallow the dogmas of certain individuals here, 

 who argue strongly that the whole empty space 

 within the case is replete with invisible insects, on 

 which the spider has lived ; so that, according to 

 these gentlemen, instead of lacking, he has had 

 an abundant supply of food. Again, other of my 

 opponents say, and affirm their saying as a positive 

 and undeniable fact, that the spider can and does, 

 when deprived of other food, draw nourishment 

 from the air, confined and free, and thereby sustains 

 life by invisible means. What is meant, I suppose, 

 is that this animal can suck food from the elements, 

 and breathe, as a pump does, water from the earth. 

 If so, what is the use of the sucker ? With respect to 

 the invisible theory, I have likewise no faith in it either. 



