ARANEID^flS TRUE SPIDERS. 33 Y 



sensitive of approaching: cbang-cs in the atmosphere, and 

 that their retirement and reappearance, their weavin«r and 

 general habits, were intimately connected with the chan.ireri 

 of the weather. In the reading of these living barometers 

 he became wonderfully accurate, so much so, that he could 

 prognosticate the approach of severe weather from ten to 

 fourteen days before it set in, which is proven V)y the follow- 

 ing remarkable fact, which led to his release: "When the 

 troops of the French republic overran Holland in the win- 

 ter of 1794, and kept pushing forward over the ice, a sud- 

 den and unexpected thaw, in the early part of Deceml)er, 

 threatened the destruction of the whole army unless it was 

 instantly withdrawn. The French generals were thinking 

 seriously of accepting a sum offered by the Dutch, and with- 

 drawing their troops, when Disjonval, who hoped that the 

 success of the republican army might lead to his release, 

 used every exertion, and at length succeeded in getting a 

 letter conveyed to the French general in 1795, in which he 

 pledged himself, from the peculiar actions of the Spiders, 

 of whose movements he was enabled to judge with perfect 

 accuracy, that within fourteen days there w^ould commence 

 a most severe frost, wdiich would make the French masters 

 of all the rivers, and afford them sufficient time to complete 

 and make sure of the conquest they had commenced, be- 

 fore it should be followed by a thaw. The commander of 

 the French forces believed his prognostication, and perse- 

 vered. The cold weather, which Disjonval had predicted, 

 made its appearance in twelve days, and with such inten- 

 sity, that the ice over the rivers and canals became capable 

 of bearing the heaviest artillery. On the 28th of January, 

 1795, the French army entered Utrecht in triumph; and 

 Quatremer Disjonval, who had watched the habits of his 

 Spiders with so much intelligence and success, was, as a 

 reward for his ingenuity, released from prison."^ 



In Bartholoma?us, De Proprietatibus Rerum (printed by 

 Th. Berthelet, 27th Henry Till.), lib. xviii. fol. 314, speak- 

 ing of Pliny, we read : "Also he saythe, spynners (Spiders) 

 ben tokens"^of divynation and of knowing what wether shal 

 fal, for oft by w^eders that shal fal, some spin and weve 



1 Quart. Rev. for Jan. 1814. 



