138 



SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



medium like the sea would quickly take up the 

 continually decreasing surrounding temperatures. 

 By thus assuming that the rates at which varying 

 portions of living matter cooled were different on 

 account of individual surroundings, how easily and 

 naturally we explain all the variations in the vital 

 temperatures of different kinds of beings ! Again, 

 the above theory finely explains the steady loss in 

 nervous sensibility in living matter with the fall- 

 ing temperature. A warm-blooded animal has its 

 bodily temperature well within the transitional 

 range of carbon. Its atoms are, therefore, in a 

 finely-balanced condition. The slightest stimulus 

 overthrows this balance and effects a chemical 

 decomposition, which in turn registers itself as a 

 vital sensation. The vital sensations of a warm- 

 blooded animal are therefore very intense. A slight 

 external influence will produce keen pleasure or 

 frightful pain. A cold-blooded animal, however, 

 has a bodily temperature nearer the limit of 

 the transitional range of carbon. Its atoms 

 are, therefore, not so finely balanced as those 

 of a warm-blooded animal. Consequently a 

 greater external influence would be required 

 in the one case than in the other to effect 

 the same amount of chemical decomposition. It 

 follows that the intensity of the sensations of a 

 cold-blooded animal must be less keen than those 

 of a warm-blooded animal. Undoubtedly cold- 

 blooded animals are rapidly approaching in in- 

 sensibility the lifeless minerals around. The 

 nearer and nearer the bodily temperature of living 

 matter approaches the limit of the transitional 

 range of carbon, the more and more obtuse 

 become their vital sensations. At the transitional 

 limit the eternal breakdown ceases. Xo stimuli, 

 however great, will awaken in such an animal 

 an animate sensation. It has evolved into a mere 

 mineral or a complex organic compound such as 

 strew the earth in countless millions. Animate 

 nature is therefore only a special case of in- 

 animate nature. From minerals ad life evolved; 

 to minerals all life returns. 



Animate and inanimate matter are certainly 

 related. Prof. Japp has pointed out that there 

 exists a close connection between the optical 

 properties of compounds and life ; while it has 

 been repeatedly emphasised that the synthetic 

 breakdown of such bodies as the sugars is analogous 

 to the process of reproduction. In both cases like 

 begets like. 



Indeed, if we study closely any portion of 

 matter, it becomes surprisingly lifelike. Even the 

 inanimate metals are full of crystalline fragments 

 in eternal motion, each growing or diminishing, 

 but never quiescent, full of tumultuous motion like 

 the ever-changing protoplasm. In inanimate matter 

 all this motion runs to waste, but in animate matter 

 there is an agency at work, directing it to useful 

 purposes. 



13 Hampton Rmd, Bristol. 



AN INTRODUCTION TO 



BRITISH SPIDERS. 



By Frank Percy Smith. 



(Continual from page 47.') 



FAMILY AGELENIDAE. 



This is a family of great interest, including several 

 of our largest and best known species. The legs aie 

 long and furnished with numerous hairs and spines, 

 the tarsi terminating in three claws. The abdomen 

 is more or less oviform, the spinners being prominent, 

 especially the superior pair, which are usually very 

 long and often consist of two distinct joints. In 

 some genera, each superior spinner is attached to a 

 prominence of the abdomen, and this fact has led to 

 the mistaken idea that they each consist of three 

 joints. Several species included in this family have 

 a general resemblance to the genus Amanrobius. 

 They may be readily separated, however, by their 

 possessing no supernumerary spinner, which is always 

 present in the family Dictynidae. 



GENUS ARGYROXETA LATR. 

 In this genus the superior spinners are not very 

 long. The falces, especially in the male, are large 

 and powerful. 



Argyroneta aquatica Ok. 



Length. Male 17 mm., female 10. 5 mm. 



This spider may be distinguished without difficulty 

 by the fact that it spends the greater part of its life 

 under water. It should be specially noticed that the 

 male is considerably larger than the female. 



GENUS CRYPHOECA TIIOR. 

 The eyes in this genus are in two curved rows, 

 which are almost parallel. The tibiae and metatarsi 

 of the first and second pairs of legs have two longi- 

 tudinal rows of spines beneath them. 



Cryphoeca moorens Cb. 



Length of female 2 mm. 



The distance between the posterior central eyes is 

 greater than that between a central eye and the lateral 

 adjacent eye. This species is very rare. 



Cryphoeca siFvicola BL 



Length. Male 2.5 mm., female 3 mm. 



This species may be easily distinguished from 



C. moerens Cb. by the distances between the hind 



eyes being equal. It is rare and local. 



GENUS COELOTES BL 

 Eyes in two rows, with the convexity of the curves 

 directed backwards. The anterior row is the shorter. 

 The superior spinners are long and divergent. 

 Maxillae strong, broadest at their extremity. Labium 

 almost oval, truncated at the apex, more than half 

 the length of the maxillae. 



(1) This series of articles on British Spiders commenced in 

 Science-Gossip. No. 67, December 1899. 



