The Life of the Spider 



voir receives the products of the work of 

 respiration performed under the cover of the 

 outer membrane. Instead of being expelled 

 through the egg-shell, the carbonic acid, the 

 incessant result of the vital oxidization, is 

 accumulated in this sort of gasometer, inflates 

 and distends it and presses upon the lid. 

 When the insect is ripe for hatching, a super- 

 added activity in the respiration completes 

 the inflation, which perhaps has been prepar- 

 ing since the first evolution of the germ. At 

 last, yielding to the increasing pressure of 

 the gaseous bladder, the lid becomes unsealed. 

 The Chick in its shell has its air-chamber; 

 the young Reduvius has its bomb of carbonic 

 acid: it frees itself in the act of breathing.' 



One would never weary of dipping eagerly 

 into these inexhaustible treasures. We im- 

 agine, for instance, that, from seeing cob- 

 webs so frequently displayed in all manner of 

 places, we possess adequate notions of the 

 genius and methods of our familiar spiders. 

 Far from it: the realities of scientific obser- 

 vation call for an entire volume crammed 

 with revelations of which we had no concep- 

 tion. I will simply name, at random, the 

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