ARANEID.E TRL'E SPIDERS. 361 



Take the little red Spider, called a tentbob (not so big as a 

 great pin's-head), the first you light upon in the spring of the 

 year, and rub it in the palm of your hand all to pieces : and 

 having so done, make water on it, and rub it in, and let it 

 dry ; then come to the beast and make water in your hand, 

 and throw it in his mouth. It cures in a matter of an hour's 

 time. This rubbing serves for a whole year, and it is no 

 danger to the hand. The chiefest skill is to know whether 

 the beast be poisoned or no."^ Mr. Aubrey had this receipt 

 from Mr. Pacy. 



In the year 1709, M. Bon, of Montpellier, communicated 

 to the Royal Academy of that city a discovery which he had 

 made of a new kind of silk, from the very fine threads with 

 which several species of Spiders (probably the Aranea dia- 

 dema and others closely allied to it) inclose their eggs ; which 

 threads were found to be much stronger than those compos- 

 ing the Spider's web. They were easily separated, carded, 

 and spun, and then aflforded a much finer thread than that of 

 the silk-worm, but, according to Reaumur, inferior to this 

 both in luster and strength. They were also found capable 

 of receiving all the different dyes with equal facility. M. 

 Bon carried his experiments so far as to obtain two or three 

 pairs of stockings and gloves of this silk, which were of an 

 elegant gray color, and were presented, as samples, to the 

 Academy. As the Spiders also were much more prolific, 

 and much more hardy than silk- worms, great expectations 

 were formed of benefit of the discovery. Reaumur ac- 

 cordingly took up and prosecuted the inquiry with zeal. 

 He computed that 663,522 Spiders would scarcely furnish a 

 single pound of silk ; and conceived that it would be impos- 

 sible to provide the necessarily immense numbers with flies, 

 their natural food. This obstacle, however, was soon re- 

 moved, by his finding that they would subsist very well upon 

 earth-worms chopped, and upon the soft ends or roots of 

 feathers. But a new obstacle arose from their unsocial pro- 

 pensities, which proved insurmountable ; for though at first 

 they seemed to feed quietly, and even work together, several 

 of them at the same web, yet they soon began to quarrel, 

 and the strongest devoured the weakest, so that of several 

 hundred, placed together in a box, but three or four re- 

 mained alive after a few days ; and nobody could propose 

 to keep and feed each separately. The silk was found to be 



1 Miscellanies, p. IB.'^. 



