SPIDERS, 49 



CASE for which there is a special hospital in the city of Mexico, of 

 which these two professors had charge ; the said medicine being 

 sanctioned by the authority of their experience in the hospital. 

 Leprosy there, for there are other forms of it elsewhere, is a 

 disease of the inner coats of the arteries, which produces 

 obstruction in the circulation and suppression of perspiration. 

 They considered that this indicated the exhibition of sudorifics, and 

 tincture of tarantula (mygale), and sarsaparilla were the sudorifics 

 they adopted. The medicine is given either as an alcoholic 

 tincture, or one of ether. If alcoholic, it is compound of twelve 

 ounces of alcohol to one of tarantula {i.e. mygale), the tarantula 

 powder having been made by pounding up the spiders, and after 

 washing the powder in strong spirits of wine, macerating it for fifteen 

 days in the alcohol, and then filtering it. In the ether tincture^ 

 sulphuric ether is substituted for alcohol, and it is then treated in 

 the same way ; an ointment and lotion are in like manner prepared 

 from it. The dose varies, but four drops of the tincture is stated 

 to produce powerful sudorific effects, although he adds, that it 

 sometimes operates in a few minutes, and in other cases not until ^ 

 after many hours. But the concurrent effect of various symptoms 

 and cases enumerated by him, is to show that the tincture does 

 produce the desired effect, if not in all cases, at least in the great 

 majority. But there remains the question whether it is due to the 

 supposed specific — the tarantula — or, to the medium in which the 

 dose is given, that is, the alcohol or ether. Everyone who has 

 swallowed a bowl of punch, or a tumbler of toddy, knows that one 

 of its properties is to induce perspiration, and all medical men at 

 least know that ether has a like effect. We have, however, no> 

 reason to suppose that the constituent particles of a spider's body 

 have any such effect. It is too obvious to have induced anyone 

 to prove it, that, except the poison gland and its contents, there is 

 no essential difference in composition between a spider and any 

 other insect. The poison is no doubt an active principle, but it 

 is infinitesimally minute in quantity, and if it bears any analogy to- 



