53 



diately afterwards effect a rapid ascent. Sometimes 

 the phenomenon of ascent is accompanied by one or 

 two divergent fasciculi, which, because Mr. Rennie has 

 never seen, he denies by implication : this is rather a 

 curious inference, and very much like a reductio ad 

 absurdum. Mr. Rennie talks much about his " study," 

 and certainly he could never witness the phenomenon 

 there ; but some may see what others have not seen, 

 nor ever may see. Our friend J. E. Bowman, Esq., 

 F. L. S., has, in a communication to us, described such 

 a phenomenon. * " Four or five, often six or eight, 

 extremely fine webs, several yards long, which waved 

 in the breeze, diverging from each other like a pencil 

 of rays : one had two distinct and widely diverging 

 fasciculi of webs, so that a line uniting them, would 

 have been at right angles to the direction of the 

 breeze." Now such divergence in these fasciculi of 

 fibres is utterly inexplicable, except on the supposition 

 of their being invested with electricity ; and they find 

 a beautiful analogy in the divergence that ensues, in 

 the fibres of a glass plume affixed to the conductor of 

 an electrical machine, when in action. We believe 

 that the threads, numerous as they sometimes are, in 

 no case interfere or combine with each other and ravel ; 

 this so far corroborates the presumptive evidence, that 

 they are all invested with the same kind of electricity. 

 Mr. Rennie flatly denies the electricity of the thread, 

 but his premises by no means seem to warrant his 

 conclusions. The spider, it appears, however, " took 

 no notice " of either excited sealing wax or excited 

 glass, even when brought " almost to touch the spin- 

 nerets ;" indeed our observer " had never anticipated 

 any other result ! " Now under such circumstances 



* See Plate, figure 8. 

 D 1 6 



