TEGENERIA MEDICINALIS. 



the present instance to the general description already given 

 of their structure, habits, &c. One particularity, however, in 

 the history of spiders, remains to be noticed, which is their 

 power of flight. This is chiefly exercised by those of minute 

 size. It is principally in the autumnal season that these di- 

 minutive adventurers ascend the air, and contribute to fill it 

 with that infinity of floating cobwebs, which are so peculiarly 

 conspicuous at that period of the year. When inclined to 

 make these aerial excursions, the spider ascends some slight 

 eminence, as the top of a wall or the branch of a tree, and 

 turning itself with its head towards the wind, darts out sev- 

 eral threads from its papillae, and, rising from its station, com- 

 mits itself to the gale, and is thus carried far beyond the 

 height of the loftiest trees. During their flight, it is probable 

 that spiders employ themselves in catching such insects, mi- 

 nutely winged, as may happen to occur in their progress ; and 

 when satisfied with their peregrinations and their prey, they 

 suffer themselves to fall by contracting their limbs and grad- 

 ually disengaging themselves from the thread that supports 

 them. 



" We read in various works," says Vincent Kollar, " that 

 spiders often eject a corrosive poisonous juice, in consequence 

 of which the joints become inflamed and swelled; and even 

 that the crawling of a spider is sufficient to cause inflamma- 

 tion in the parts which it touches. It might, perhaps, be too 

 much to contradict the assertions of many writers," but our 

 author .says, " I have never found these observations adduced 

 by men who have been exclusively occupied with the study 

 of spiders, nor have I ever experienced any thing of this kind 

 myself, throughout the many years in which I have been en- 

 gaged in studying insects and spiders." All spiders are insects 

 of prey, and feed on other insects, which they catch alive, kill, 

 and then suck out their fluids. For this end they are mostly 

 provided with very strong choice or mandibles. These choice 

 are of a horny substance, bent inwards, hollow, and provided 

 with an opening at the top, and are connected with glands 

 which secrete a corrosive juice. They discharge this juice 

 into the captured insects they have wounded, apparently to 

 kill them sooner. The same thing happens when they 

 wound a person who has caught one and gives it pain. Pain 

 will naturally be the consequence of the wound, and the cor- 

 rosive juice communicated to it, the wounded part becoming 



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