ARANEID.E — TKl E SPIDKIIS. 359 



Spiders is an excellent cure for wounds, and that this was 

 one of the choice secrets of Sir Walter Raleigh. . . . 



" The Spider is said to avert the paroxisms of fevers, if 

 it be applied to the pulse of the wrist, or the temples ; hut 

 it is peculiarly recommended against a quartan, being en- 

 closed in the shell of a hazlenut. ... 



" The Spider, which some call the catcher, or wolf, ])eing 

 beaten into a plaister, then sewed up in linen, and applied to 

 the forehead and temples, prevents the return of the tertian. 



There is another kind of Spider, which spins a white, 



fine, and thick web. One of this sort, wrapped in leather, 

 and hung about the arm, will, it is said, avert the fit of a 

 quartan. Boiled in oil of roses, and distilled into the ears, 

 it eases (says Dioscorides, ii. 68) pains in those parts. . . . 



''The country people have a tradition, that a small quan- 

 tity of Spiders' web, given about an hour before the fit of an 

 ague, and repeated immediately before it, is effectual in cur- 

 ing that troublesome, and sometimes obstinate distemper. 

 The Indians about Xorth Carolina have great de- 

 pendence on this remedy for ague, to which they are much 

 subject."^ 



"Of the cod or bags of Spiders, M. Bon caused a sort of 

 drops to be made, in imitation of those of Goddard, because 

 they contain a great quantity of volatile salt."- 



Moufet, in Theatrum Insectorum, has the following: 

 "Also that knotty whip of God, and mock of all physicians, 

 the Gowt, which learned men say can be cured by no remedy, 

 findes help and cure by a Spider layed on, if it be taken at 

 that time when neither sun nor moon shine, and the hinder 

 legs pulled off, and put into a deer's skin and bound to the 

 pained foot, and be left on it for some time. Also for the 

 most part we finde those people to be free from the gowt of 

 hands or feet (which few medicaments can doe), in whose 

 houses the Spiders breed much, and doth beautifie them with 



her tapestry and hangings Our chirurgeons cure 



warts thus: They wrap a Spider's ordinary web into the 

 fashion of a ball, and laying it on the wart, they set it on 

 fire, and so let it burn to ashes; by this means the wart is 



rooted out by the roots, and will never grow again 



I cannot but repeat a history that I formerly heard from 



1 James's Med. Diet. 



2 Geoffrey's Substances used in Med., p. o83. 



