NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Kircherus, Sir Thomas Brown, &c. 



stupor into which he was fallen ; but here it was 

 observed that the bites of the two insects had 

 produced contrary effects ; for by one he w r as 

 incited to dance, and by the other restrained 

 therefrom ; and in this conflict of nature the 

 patient died. 



The same author, attempting mechanically to 

 account for the cure of the bite of the tarantula 

 by music, says of the poison, that it is sharp, 

 gnawing, and bilious, and that it is received and 

 incorporated into the medullary substance of the 

 fibres. With respect to the music, he says, that 

 the sound of the chords have a power to rarify 

 the air to a certain harmonical pitch ; and that 

 the air, thus rarified, penetrating the pores of 

 the patient's body, affects the muscles, arteries, 

 and minute fibres, and incites him to dance, 

 which exercise begets a perspiration in which the 

 poison evaporates. 



Unsatisfactory as this theory appears, the be- 

 lief of this strange phenomenon has prevailed 

 among the ablest of modern physicians* Sir 

 Thomas Brown, so far from disputing it, says, 

 that since many attest the fact from experience, 

 and that the learned Kircherus has positively 

 averred, and set down the songs and tunes so^ 

 lemnly used for the cure of the disease ; and 

 since some also affirm that the tarantula itself 

 will dance at the sound of music, he shall not at 

 all question it. Farther, an eminent Italian phy- 

 sician, Baglivi, a native of Apulia, the country 



