50 AEA CHNOIDEA, 



CASE the poison of other venomous animals, it is inert and innocuous, 

 unless introduced into the circulation by a wound. The credit, 

 therefore, of the tincture of tarantula as a sudorific appears to be 

 due to the alcohol or ether, in which the inactive constituents of 

 the spiders are administered. Their real medical value is now, 

 at least in European practice, restricted, if it even remains to that 

 extent, to that of a styptic for stopping the bleeding of slight cuts 

 by external application. 



Indirect advantage has been taken of the habits of spiders to 

 supply the place of a barometer. There is a story of this having 

 been done during the War in Holland, after the great French 

 Revolution. Some years previously, when the Stadtholder had 

 been re-instated in his dominions by the Prussian arms, a M. 

 Quatremere dTsjonval, a Frenchman (during the commotions 

 which then occurred) was arrested and imprisoned at Utrecht, 

 where he passed several years in captivity. To amuse the tedium 

 of confinement he was wont to watch some spiders that happened 

 to make their abode near him, and to cultivate their acquaintance. 

 Whether he succeeded in taming them may be doubted, but he, at 

 all events, satisfied himself that like many of the lower animals 

 they were very sensitive to meteorological changes, and he got to 

 know what changes their different behaviours portended. The 

 information so obtained came to be useful by and by. In January 

 1795 ^^^ was released by the advance of the French. An intense 

 frost had enabled them to pass the watery defences of the place. 

 They had, however, scarcely taken possession when a rapid thaw 

 commenced, and the French Commanders found their communi- 

 cations about to be compromised by the melting of the ice on the 

 various streams across which it had allowed them to advance. 

 In much anxiety they were about to retreat, when M. dTsjonval, 

 who had noticed the behaviour of his spider friends, commu- 

 nicated to the officers his confident assurance that the frost was 

 about to set in again with greater intensity than ever. Whether 

 relying on his assurance, or on other grounds, they suspended 



