CORRESPONDENCE 185 



" BANNF, December 6, 1852. 



" MY DEAR SIR, I beg to return my most grateful 

 thanks for the kind manner and promptitude with 

 which you have answered my letter referring to the 

 spider. 



" I am sorry, very sorry, to say, however, that I 

 cannot in the meantime comply with your feeling 

 request that of giving him his liberty. 



" I wish to ascertain, if possible, how long he 

 will, or can, live without food. 1 That he feels no 

 pain from the want of food as yet I do think, from 

 the circumstance that he has shown no symptoms 

 of it as far as I can, or have been able to, detect ; 

 and I can add that he is frequently, very frequently, 

 looked at both night and day. 



" My intention is to give him his freedom, and to 

 supply him with food also, whenever he becomes 

 restless and ventures to wander about the case, 

 which in my opinion will be the sign of his feeling 

 1 the keen demands of appetite.' 



" Again begging to return my best thanks for 

 your kindness, I remain, my dear Sir, your most 

 obedient servant, THOMAS EDWARD." 



Thomas Edward was a man of action and endur- 

 ance as well as of observation. A few years later 

 he sent my father a long account of an evening 



1 It was reported that the creature lived in this way for a whole 

 year. 



