82 CONCLUSION. 



were so much more aggravated than anything the 

 writer had frequently seen of spiderbite that he 

 hesitated to accept it as the cause, although it 

 appeared almost the only possible one. A careful 

 inquiry into the history of the case elicited from the 

 mother the important fact that on the previous after- 

 noon the little fellow, just able to toddle about, had 

 gradually lost the use of his legs, and also become 

 very peevish, and that suspecting nothing but a little 

 temporary indisposition, she had put him to bed, to 

 find him in the morning all but dead. He was 

 scarcely breathing when the writer saw him, and only 

 the stethoscope gave evidence of the heart still 

 beating feebly. His body was very cold, pupils 

 widely dilated, and the sight even apparently gone, 

 the eyes wide open, staring fixedly upwards and not 

 noticing a lighted match in closest proximity to them. 

 Consciousness also appeared extinct, as liquids intro- 

 duced into the mouth were not swallowed. Examining 

 once more for traces of spiderbite in the skin, the 

 writer noticed faint red stripes extending up the arm 

 from a little cut on the right index finger near the 

 nail, and on inquiry it was ascertained at last from an 

 elder brother that he had seen the child pick up a 

 little black spider with a red back, hold it for some 

 time between thumb and index finger, and then throw 

 it away. This was evidently the Katipo ( Latrodectus 

 icelio), the poison of which acts on the same principle as 

 snake-poison, but generally much milder. The greater 

 severity of its action in this case was accounted for by 



