784 



TARDIGRADA. 



The following particulars relative to the habits of 

 this insect are concisely abstracted from M. Dufour's 

 Memoir above quoted. It is in exposed dry barren 

 places that the Tarantula constructs its burrows in 

 the earth, and which are an inch in diameter and 

 a foot in depth. For securing both a safe retreat 

 and a place of ambuscade, the Tarantula has the 

 instinct to construct its passage at first in a vertical 

 direction ; but at four or five inches from the surface 

 it turns in an obtuse angle, forms a horizontal bend, 

 and then reassumes the perpendicular. It is at the 

 commencement of this bend that the Tarantula esta- 

 blishes himself as a vigilant sentinel, and never for a 

 moment loses sight of the entrance to his abode ; and,it 

 was there that at the time when M. Duf'our discovered 

 him, he was betrayed by his eyes glittering like dia- 

 monds, and rendered bright like those of a cat by the 

 darkness. The ordinary entrance to the burrow is 

 surmounted by a funnel somewhat similar to that 

 formed bv some of the sand-wasps (Gdi/ncrus), com- 

 posed of fragments of dried wood, united by a little 

 clay, and lined within with a tissue formed of the 

 threads of the Lycosa, and which is continued through 

 the whole interior. It is easy to conceive how useful 

 this skilfully fabricated drapery must be both in 

 preventing the crumbling in of the earth, or any* such 

 accident, and also in assisting the Tarantula in scaling 

 its fortress. The funnel, moreover, protects the burrow 

 from inundations, and fortifies it against falling bodies, 

 which, swept by the wind, would be likely to close it 

 up ; it also serves as an ambush, by offering to flies 

 and other insects upon which the Tarantula feeds 

 an enticing resting-place. 



M. Dufour then details the various manoeuvres he 

 was compelled to employ, in order to obtain spe- 

 cimens of the spider, by digging, or enticing them 

 out of their holes ; from this detail it appears that 

 the spider is both wary and courageous whilst in his 

 retreat, but confused when found out of it. The 

 Apulian peasants adopt another plan for capturing 

 the Tarantula ; according to Baglivi, these country 

 people make a buzzing noise like the humming of a 

 bee at the mouth of the hole, which is mistaken by 

 the spider for its prey, in pursuit of which it comes 

 out of its hole, and is immediately caught. Not- 

 withstanding the obnoxious appearance of this 

 creature, it is capable of being tamed; and M. 

 Dufour gives us the history of a specimen which 

 became so contented and tame, that it would come 

 out of its hole and eat from his fingers the fly that was 

 brought for it. 



According to the old authorities, the bite of the 

 Tarantula occasioned an inflammation in the part, 

 which in a few hours brought on sickness, difficulty 

 in breathing, and universal faintness. The person 

 afterwards was stated to be affected with delirium, 

 and sometimes to be seized with a deep melancholy, 

 the symptoms returning annually in some cases for 

 several years, and afterwards terminating in death. 

 According to others, the symptoms produced by the 

 poison were similar to those of malignant fever ; 

 whilst by others the skin exhibited only a few ery- 

 sipelatous spots. Music, it was pretended, was the 

 only remedy. A musician was brought, who tried a 

 variety of airs, till at last he hit upon one that urged 

 the patient to dance, the violence ot which exercise 

 produced a proportional agitation of the vital spirits, 

 attended with a consequent degree of perspiration ; 

 the certain consequence of which was a cure. Such 

 are the circumstances which have been generally 



related and long credited regarding the bite of this 

 animal. Kircherus in his Musargia gives a very par- 

 ticular account of the symptoms and cure, illustrated 

 by histories of cases, amongst which he mentions a 

 girl who, being bitten by this insect, could be cured 

 only by the music of a drum ; relating also that a 

 Spaniard, trusting to the efficacy of the music, sub- 

 mitted to be bitten in the hand by two of these spiders 

 of different colours, and possessed of different qua- 

 lities. The venom was no sooner diffused about his 

 body than the symptoms of the disorder began to 

 appear, upon which harpers, pipers, and other musi- 

 cians were sent for, who, by various kinds of music, 

 endeavoured to rouse him from that stupor into which 

 he was fallen ; but here it was observed that the 

 bites of the two insects had produced contrary effects, 

 for by one he was incited to dance, and by the other 

 he was restrained therefrom; and in this conflict of 

 nature the patient expired. 



Some authors indeed have carried their belief in this 

 matter so far as to note down the tunes which they 

 believed most serviceable for the Tarentolati, as 

 persons suffering under tarentisrnus were called. 

 Professor Haffenreffer, of Ulm, has set them forth in 

 his work entitled " Traite des Maladies de la Peau." 



It is in the Philosophical Transactions of our own 

 country that we find the first attempts to disprove 

 this fiction. So far back as 1672, a letter from Dr. 

 Cornelio, a Neapolitan physician, was published, in 

 which it is stated that " all those that think them- 

 selves bitten by Tarantulas, except such as for evil 

 ends feign themselves to be so, are for the most part 



S>ung wanton girls, whom the Italian writers call 

 olci di Sale, who by some particular indisposition, 

 falling into this melancholy madness, persuade them- 

 selves, according to the vulgar prejudice, that they 

 have been stung by a Tarantula." 



A century afterwards, in the same Transactions (for 

 1770), Professor Dominico Cyrillo, of Naples, states, 

 that having had an opportunity of examining the 

 effects of this animal in the province of Tarento, 

 where it is found in great abundance, he finds that 

 the surprising cure of the bite of the Tarantula by 

 music, has not the least truth in] it ; and that it is 

 only an invention of the people, who want to get a 

 little money by dancing, when they say the tareutism 

 begins. He adds, " I make no doubt but sometimes 

 the heat of the climate contributes very much to 

 warm their imaginations, and throw them into a 

 delirium, which may be in some measure cured by 

 music ; but several experiments have been tried with 

 the Tarantula, and neitherjnen nor animals have had 

 any other complaint than a very trifling inflammation 

 upon the part like that produced by the bite of a 

 scorpion, which goes off by itself without any danger 

 at all. In Sicily, where the summer is still warmer 

 than in any part of the kindorn of Naples, the Taran- 

 tula is never dangerous, and music is never employed 

 for the cure of the pretended tarentism." 



The correctness of these remarks has been fully 

 confirmed by several cases recently brought under 

 the notice of the Entomological Society of France, 

 by M. Lefebvre, and published in the Annalcs of 

 that Society. 



TARDIGRADA Slow-goers. A family of 

 mammalia of the order Edentata, including, of living 

 animals, the sloths (see Ai and UNAU), which are 

 tree animals of moderate size, and the extinct Mega- 

 therium and Mcgalonyx, both of which have been 

 animals of giant bulk ; but their habits and the charac- 



