378 Notes on an alleged species of poisonous Lizard, fyc. 



contact of a spider. One of the best marked was that of a 

 mosaulchy, a servant of my own. He had gone to bed quite 

 well, but towards morning feeling something crawling over 

 his face, he slapped the part smartly with his hand, killing 

 a large spider thereon. The part immediately became very 

 painful, and when he shewed himself to me, the upper 

 side of his face was much swollen, and the surface parti- 

 ally blistered, while the lids of the eye of that side were so 

 swollen as to close them completely on the ball. A slight 

 irritative fever supervened, and the smarting for three or four 

 days was very painful, and it was some weeks before his face 

 lost traces of disfigurement, when the skin about the malar 

 region desquamated. The only remedy used was cold 

 cream, with the exhibition of a saline purgative. I send you 

 a representation of the spider that is accused of producing 

 these inconvenient effects by its contact, for though no 

 draughtsman, my rough sketch taken many years ago, from 

 the life, may be deemed better than none, and will give the 

 readers of these notes some idea of the insect. How then 

 is the effect produced ? Here the insect was crushed upon 

 the part, but it is said that the creature's mere contact will 

 prove injurious ; supposing this to be true, how does its 

 contact prove injurious ? 



In the 3d volume of Kirby and Spence's work, in referring 

 to Puncta upon the integuments of some insects, occur the 

 following remarks — " The other impressed puncta so often 

 to be seen on the different parts of various insects, which 

 sometimes so entirely cover the surface that scarcely any in- 

 terval is discoverable between them, though in many cases 

 they appear to be mere impressions that attenuate but do not 

 perforate the crust — yet in others, perhaps equally or more 

 numerous, they are real pores, which pass through the in- 

 tegument. If for instance you take the thoracic shield of 

 the cockchaffer ( Melolontha vulgaris) and after removing 

 the muscle, &c. hold it against the light, with the inner side 



