598 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1701. 



February Stli, I could perceive that many of the spiders had eaten each other 

 up, and at the very time I looked on them there were four upon one, whom 

 they had almost devoured ; and here and there I saw pieces of legs, and now 

 the shells of the barren eggs were eaten up so clear, that I could see nothing of 

 them remaining. 



February 10th, my spiders were reduced to half their number, and those that 

 remained were eating the tlvickest of their companions' legs. Thus they dimi- 

 nished daily, so that on the last of the said month I could see but 30 of them 

 alive, among which a few were 20 times as large as some that remained. March 

 5th I could see but 3 or 4 alive, and about the web I observed a black matter, 

 about which the spiders had swarmed very much, and I found that it was nothing 

 else but a heap of legs of those young spiders, whose bodies had been devoured. 



I kept by me the eggs of several spiders in glass- tubes in my closet, and par- 

 ticularly January 24lh I put the eggs of two different spiders in two distinct 

 glasses, and on the 6th of February could perceive in one of them 3 young 

 spiders crawling out of the web. I took one of those young spiders, whose 

 egg-shell was still hanging at his tail, and set it before my microscope in the 

 open air ; and though the fore-part of its body was as clear as glass, yet I could 

 not perceive the least motion in the inner parts: from whence I concluded that 

 the heart was not settled in their breast, for if it had been there, I must needs have 

 perceived its motion ; I therefore believe it lies near the eyes, where it was not 

 so transparent ; for that the expulsion of the blood in a spider proceeds from the 

 heart, I think is not to be doubted. I endeavoured also to discover the circula- 

 tion of the blood in the legs of these small animals, which observation succeeded 

 with me several times. When I cast my eyes on the hinder part of their bodies 

 I could perceive that the entrails consisted of a vast number of globules of 

 several sizes, of which the eggs are composed. 



On the 7th of February I could not perceive that there were any more young 

 spiders come out of the web, but I saw at least 25 egg-shells, lying without the 

 web. On the Qth of the said month a few young spiders were come out of the 

 web, which had cast their skins, and others were crowded together in the web. 

 On the lOth, all the young spiders were got out, and had shed their pellicles, 

 before which time I do not believe they endeavoured to come out. On the 12th, 

 I laid one of the glass-tubes on my desk, to see how the spiders would fare in 

 cold weather ; and the next morning I found that most of them were crept into 

 their web ; but after I had carried them some hours in my pocket, I found they 

 were come abroad again. 



The 20th of February I took two young spiders out of the said glass-tube, 

 and put them into another that was thinner, and stopped both ends of this 



