Bibliographical Notices. 303 
inflicted by certain animals, though in reality only a small minority 
can be so explained. He points out a strong analogy between me- 
diveval tarantism and the dancing manias which have visited several 
parts of Europe at different periods; and he considers it very pro- 
bable that a similar epidemic developed itself independently in Italy, 
and that only superstition ascribed it to the various kinds of “ ta- 
rantola.” But Dr. Bergsée does not think that this explanation 
exhausts the question. He is of opinion that a very large part of 
these phenomena are to be ascribed to a kind of local fever generated 
by the highly unhealthy exhalations from the soil of Apulia, and 
that the subjects of this kind of tarantism (which still occurs not 
unfrequently in Apulia) were simply the victims of malaria. This 
view of the matter explains why tarantism was so rare out of Apulia, 
although tarantulas occur in most parts of Italy,—a circumstance 
which has not failed to puzzle the ancient writers on the subject, 
and led them into various unreasonable hypotheses—for instance, 
that the animals lost their venomous properties by removal from 
their native soil. Finally, the undoubted poisonous properties of 
the wounds inflicted by some of the various (sometimes, however, 
quite harmless) animals comprised under the popular name of “ taran- 
tula” (particularly by the well-known spider of that name, by scorpions, 
probably also by Scolopendras), may account for some of the lighter 
eases of tarantism; but it is only want of hygienic knowledge com- 
bined with the instinctive dread, common with uneducated people, of 
small, strangely shaped, creeping animals, which has caused so many 
different phenomena of disease to be ascribed to their agency. Dr. 
Bergsée gives an interesting account of the habits of life of the true 
Tarantula, which certainly does not favour the idea of its coming 
easily in contact with men; and he mentions several hitherto over- 
looked peculiarities of structure, of which we note the existence of 
special provisions for facilitating the carrying of the young on the 
back of their mother. Not only are the claws and their five teeth 
in the young proportionally very long and sharp, but the hairs form- 
ing the felt-like covering on the back of the female Tarantula are 
specially constructed for the purpose, consisting as they do of a 
basal bulb, a short smooth stem, surmounted by a much longer part 
covered with stiff spinules or bristles pointing upwards, and termi- 
nating in a very minute rounded head or button. The hairs on the 
legs present a similar structure, but are much softer and without the 
terminal button; but the long stiff hairs interspersed with the felt 
on the back are quite plain ; nor is this complicated structure observed 
in the hairy covering of the male. 
_ Philichthys Xiphie, Steenstr., was first discovered by the late 
Prof. Eschricht on the head of a Xiphias gladius, L., and briefly 
described by Prof. Steenstrup, who also drew attention to the pro- 
bability of its frequent occurrence as a parasite of that fish, in cer- 
tain cavities connected +with the muciparous canals on the head. 
He was, however, unable to assign it a place in the zoological sys- 
tem, on account of its extraordinarily deformed appearance, which led 
him to suggest that it might belong to the class of Annclida. ‘This 
