LIFE AMONGST THE SPIDERS. 99 



heard to exclaim, "This could not have been made, it 

 must have been created ! " 



There is a fifth reason why the spider should not be 

 classed with insects: it has eight legs, while ordinary 

 insects have six. The nervous system, too, is far removed 

 from that of insects, as I will show. 



That spiders have existed on the earth from a very 

 remote period, is evident from the fact that various 

 fossil specimens have been found in the coal formation 

 of Shropshire. The nervous system is their distinguish- 

 ing characteristic. In man the seat of sensation is in 

 the brain, and consists, as we shall see when we come 

 to our anatomical study, of a number of convolutions, 

 each of which, says the phrenologist, has its own par- 

 ticular function to perform in the phenomena of our 

 lives. "What we call brain in man consists, in insects, of 

 a series of knotted nerves called ganglia, which extend 

 to every part of the body. Insects generally have from 

 six to ten of these little brains, or ganglia, diffused 

 through their entire forms; spiders have only two, but 

 they are more like the true brain with which we are 

 familiar, as being more concentrated: consequently, 

 spiders are of a higher order, and we shall see what good 

 use they make of their two brains, as we may with our 

 double lobe if we will. 



Another very striking difference between insects and 

 spiders is to be seen in the circulation of that life-giving 

 fluid we call blood. In man the pumping-machine for 

 this vital fluid is the heart, which involuntarily beats 

 against our ribs day and night as long as we live, at each 

 stroke reminding us of our mortality. Spiders are pro- 

 vided with a true heart, unlike insects, and this heart is 

 furnished with arteries and veins, giving it, as in the 

 higher animals, perfect circulation. 



