382 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1399 



pared for filing under the proper places. Sucli 

 a work carefully executed would eliminate at 

 once almost all the changes in nomenclature 

 due to priority only, the names, that seem to 

 irritate most grievously the men who are not 

 actually engaged in revisional work. 



The reviser usually has only one aim, or 

 should have only one aim in mind, and that is 

 to achieve stability by applying the rules of the 

 international code consistently, no matter how 

 much he may dislike to do so. No nomencla- 

 torial stability can be achieved if each of us 

 follows an independent method. A catalogue of 

 the kind above referred to would make a quick 

 revision possible, the main points of which 

 would stand for a long time to come, and 

 the minor shift could easily be kept current 

 by the small force that should prepare the 

 cards for the new things published year by 

 year. I wish to heartily recommend this 

 undertaking to the National Research Coun- 

 cil. I am sure that the whole zoological 

 fraternity, yes, not only zoological but botani- 

 cal fraternity, would be grateful for such a 

 work. 



It is to be hoped that Professor Morse will 

 continue this work and will find time to give 

 us the results of his efforts. 



Paul Bartsch 



VENOMOUS SPIDERS 



My attention having recently been called to 

 the death of a man, apparently from the bite 

 of a spider (which case will be described be- 

 low), I have brought together some of the 

 literature upon this much debated question, 

 and I shall quote from several authorities 

 upon the subject. 



Comstock, in " The Spider Book," makes 

 the following statements in discussing the 

 venomous character of spider bites: 



During my study of spiders I have collected 

 thousands of specimens and have taken very many 

 in my hand but have never been bitten by one 

 (p. 213). 



iSeveral of the more prominent arachnologists, in- 

 cluding Mr. Blackwall, of England, and Baron 

 Walckenaer and M. Duges, of France, have made 

 experiments to determine the effect on man of the 



bite of spiders. Each of these experimenters caused 

 himself to be bitten by spiders; and all agree that 

 the effects of the bites did not differ materially 

 from those of pricks made the same time with a 

 needle (p. 214). 



I have given considerable attention to this ques- 

 tion with the result that I firmly believe that in the 

 North at least there is no spider that is to be 

 feared by man. 



Although we have in the North no spider that is 

 to be feared, it is quite possible that in tihe South 

 it is different. I confess that I should not like to 

 be bitten by one of the larger tarantulas of that 

 region, although I know of no well-authenticated 

 case of a person being bitten by one. 



The spiders of the genus Latrodectus, of which 

 we have a common representative in the South, are 

 feared wherever they occur, and it is possible that 

 they are more venomous than other spiders. . . . 



This genus, as has been well stated by E. P. 

 Cambridge, comprises those very interesting 

 spiders which, under various local names, have been 

 notorious in all ages and in all regions of the 

 world where they occur on account of the reputed 

 deadly nature of their bite. It may be added that 

 this belief is not shared by students of spiders . . . 

 (p. 357). 



This species (L. mactens) is very common and 

 widely distributed in the South. It is found under 

 stones and pieces of wood on the ground, about 

 stumps, in holes in the ground, and about out- 

 buildings ... (p. 358). 



Although it is essentially a southern species, it 

 occurs in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hamp- 

 shire and doubtless other of the northern states. 

 ... It also occurs in California (p. 358). 



An apparent inconsistency is seen in the 

 above quotations. He states in one place 

 " that in the north at least there is no spider 

 that is to be feared by man." A little later 

 he says: 



Although it (Latrodectes) ds essentially a south- 

 ern species, it occurs in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsyl- 

 vania, New Hampshire, and doubtless other of the 

 northern states. . . . 



Since he reports Latrodectes from Pennsyl- 

 vania and New Hampshire it is obviously not 

 an entirely southern species. 



Long before tlie publication, in 1912, of 

 " The Spider Book," in Vol. 1, 1889, of Insect 

 Life, the editors, Riley and Howard, discussed 

 in two articles, the question of spider bites. 



