TEGENERIA MEDICINALIS. 



country. These webs are found in cellars, barns, and other dark 

 places ; they are of a brown or blackish color. They are re- 

 puted to possess extraordinary medical virtues, while those 

 of the field spider are said to be inefficacious and of no ac- 

 count. Several very respectable authors speak in very de- 

 cided terms of their powers, and recommend them as febri- 

 fuge, sedative, and antispasmodic. There are, however, vari- 

 ous opinions among medical men as to the modus operandi 

 of cobweb, some attributing it entirely to the control of the 

 imagination, while others view it in a quite different light, 

 and entertain favorable opinions of it as a powerful thera- 

 peutical agent. 



According to Dr. Robert Jackson, tela aranecR is superior 

 even to bark and arsenic in the cure of intermittents, and is 

 moreover highly useful in various spasmodic and nervous dis- 

 eases, controlling and tranquillizing irregular nervous action, 

 exhilarating the spirits, and disposing to sleep, without pro- 

 ducing any of the narcotic effects of opium on the brain. 

 Among the complaints in which it has been found useful, be- 

 sides intermittent fever, are periodical headache, hectic fever, 

 asthma, hysteria, and nervous irritations attended with mor- 

 bid vigilance and irregular muscular action. The dose of 

 spider's web is five or six grains, to be given in the form of a 

 pill, and repeated every three or four hours. Dr. Jackson 

 states that its influence is not in proportion to the quantity 

 administered, and that he obtained the same effects from ten 

 as from twenty grains. 



It will naturally be observed, that many of the complaints 

 enumerated above are for the most part affections over which 

 the imagination has much control, and if the supposition be 

 allowed that the chief operation of this medicine is through 

 the imagination, the observations of Dr. Jackson may well 

 be accounted for. 



Spider's web has also been used with asserted advantage 

 as a styptic in wounds, and as a healing application in super- 

 ficial ulcers. 



Spiders themselves were formerly employed in the treat- 

 ment of intermittent fever, and this application of the web is 

 not of recent origin. The small silver-headed spider, given 

 in a dough pill, is said to be a prompt and efficacious cure 

 for ague, and has been very . frequently and advantageously 

 employed in domestic practice. 



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