ANIMALS. 41 



is not true ; I mean that of the tarantula. Every 

 person who has been in Italy, now well knows 

 that the bite of this animal, and its being cured 

 by music, is all a deception. When strangers 

 come into that part of the country, the country 

 people are ready enough to take money for danc- 

 ing to the tarantula. A friend of mine had a ser- 

 vant who suffered himself to be bit ; the wound, 

 which was little larger than the puncture of a 

 pin, was uneasy for a few hours, and then became 

 well without any farther assistance. Some of the 

 country people, however, still make a tolerable 

 livelihood of the credulity of strangers, as the 

 musician finds his account in it no less than the 

 dancer." 



Sounds, like light, are not only extensively dif- 

 fused, but are frequently reflected. The laws of 

 this reflection, it is true, are not as well under- 

 stood as those of light; all we know is, that 

 sound is principally reflected by hard bodies ; 

 and their being hollow, also, sometimes increases 

 the reverberation. " No art, however, can make 

 an echo ; and some, who have bestowed great 

 labour and expense upon such a project, have 

 only erected shapeless buildings, whose silence was 

 a mortifying lecture upon their presumption." 



The internal cavity of the ear seems to be 

 fitted up for the purpose of echoing sound with 

 the greatest precision. This part is fashioned 

 out in the temporal bone, like a cavern cut into 

 a rock. " In this the sound is repeated and 

 articulated ; and, as some anatomists tell us, (for 

 we have as yet but very little knowledge on this 



