THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 163 



The poison apparatus of spiders is precisely analogous to 

 that of serpents, only that it is of microscopic size. It pos- 

 sesses mobile teeth, hollow fangs which distil the poison into 

 the wound, and this is secreted by a peculiar gland, situated 

 in the interior of the palpi attached to the under-jaws, 

 which effect the bite. 



In the large tropical species this lethal fluid is so active 

 that it kills in an instant animals of a far superior size, and 

 is often employed against the birds which the spiders seize 

 on the trees. In one of her magnificent plates Sibylle de 

 Merian, so celebrated for her knowledge and her beautiful 

 paintings from natural history, represents a touching scene : 

 that of a spider, the Mygale avicularia, which is killing a 

 humming-bird near its nest. 1 



Some well-known spiders, which are almost as large as 

 the fist, sometimes fasten on chickens and pigeons, seizing 

 them by the throat and killing them instantaneously, drink- 

 comes. It is found along the coasts of the Mediterranean, in Sicily, Barbary, and 

 Provence. This spider was formerly much dreaded, and the symptoms produced 

 by its bite were compared to those of hydrophobia, which procured for it the name 

 of the " mad spider." Old authors maintained that those who were bitten by it 

 fell into a profound stupor or were seized with convulsions, for which music was 

 a sovereign remedy, by inducing them to dance, which they did till they were 

 exhausted and fell down senseless. Baglivi, though a learned physician, was yet 

 deceived as to the Tarantula disorder, about which he wrote a special treatise, in 

 which we find set down the airs most suited to effect a cure. Baglivi, Dissert, de 

 Anat. Morsu et Affectibus Tarentulce, 1 745. 



1 This animal, known in South America as the Abamdiu, or Great Spider, 

 measures an inch across the thorax, and spins a cocoon three inches long and 

 one broad. It is not certain whether it belongs to the hunting or the working 

 spiders. Madame de Merian 's statement that it attacks the humming-bird, 

 though at one time boldly denied, has been confirmed in Bates's Naturalist on 

 the Amazon, and in the paper from which this note is taken. Termever, Proc. 

 Essex Institute, U. S. TR. 



