TARANTULA. 141 



nary name, and which has become famous not only on ac- 

 count of the supposed venomous effects of its bite, which is 

 stated to have been followed by death or tarentismus, but 

 also from the supposition that music and dancing were the 

 only remedies against it. The most elaborate account which 

 we possess of this spider is given by M. Dufour in the An- 

 nales des Sciences Naturelles for 1835, and which has been 

 translated in the new series of the Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory. 



It is in exposed dry places that the Tarantula constructs 

 its burrows in the earth, and which are an inch in diameter 

 and a foot in depth. The ordinary entrance to the burrow 

 is surmounted by a funnel somewhat similar to that formed 

 by some of the sand- wasps (Odynerus), composed of frag- 

 ments 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 con- 

 ceive 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. 



According to the old authorities, the bite of the Tarantula ac- 

 casioned 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 re- 

 turning annually in some cases for several years, and afterwards 

 terminating in death. According to others, the symptoms pro- 

 duced by the poison were similar to those of malignant fever ; 

 whilst by others the skin exhibited only a few erysipelatous 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 of 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. 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 



