TELA ARANE^. 



the success of Dr. Gillespie, of Edinburgh, in curing an obstinate inter- 

 mittent with cobwebs, after other means had failed. He was led from this 

 to try it himself, and has given several instances of its perfect efficacy, even 

 when of long continuance; and he is led from those cases 'to consider cob- 

 web as possessing the power of suspending the course of intermittent 

 lever with great certainty.' And elsewhere he concludes, that it 'possessed 

 an extraordinary and altogether an inexplicable power in calming irrita- 

 tions, and in diminishing the excess of bodily torments' — hence he was 

 induced to try it 'in the deliria, pains, spasms, and subsultus, common in 

 fevers of the continued class.' The effect far exceeded his expectations. 

 He likewise effected perfect cures in some troublesome spasmodic affec- 

 tions; and gave it with the most marked benefit in dry, irritating coughs, 

 usually termed nervous, singly, and sometimes conjoined with opium. In 

 the advanced stage of phthisis, it procured a respite beyond his expecta- 

 tion, one particular case of which he details. He further found it useful 

 in restraining a troublesome hiccough. And he concludes by affirming, 

 'that cobweb dirninishes morbid irritability, and calms irritations of both 

 body and mind, in a degree far exceeding any drug or remedy within the 

 circle of our knowledge.' " — Coxe's American' Dispensatory, 1831. 



The United States Dispensatory, first edition, 1833, gives cobweb 

 due remedial credit, citing several well known authorities. This view 

 of t|ie remedy was continued, in substance, throughout subsequent 

 editions, with the added sentence that cobweb, stuflfed into the cavities 

 from which teeth have been extracted, stops the flow of blood. 



"It is affirmed that the web of the field spider is inefficacious, while 

 that collected in cellars of houses, etc., has extraordinary medical virtues. 

 Several authors speak in very decided terms of its powers as a febrifuge 

 and antispasmodic. According to Dr. Robert Jackson, it is superior Jtven 

 to bark and arsenic in the cure of intermittents, and is, moreover, highly 

 useful in various spasmodic and nervous diseases, controlling and tran- 

 quilizing irregular nervous action, exhilarating the spirits, and disposing to 

 sleep without producing any of the narcotic effects of opium on the brain. 

 These praises are to a certain extent echoed by Dr. Chapman and Dr. 

 Eberle, in their respective works on Therapeutics and Materia Medica. 

 Among the complaints in which it has been found useful, besides intermit- 

 tent fever, are periodical headache, the hectic fever of consumption, asthma, 

 hysteria, and nervous irritations attended with morbid vigilance and irreg- 

 ular muscular action. It will be observed, that these are, for the most part, 

 affections over which the imagination has, much control. The dose of 

 spider's web is five or six grains, to be given in the form of pill, and re- 

 peated every three or four hours. Dr. Jackson states that its influence is 

 not in proportion to the quantity administered; and that he obtained the 

 same effects from ten as from twenty grains. This might well be, if the 

 supposition be allowed, that its chief operation is through the mind of the 

 patient. Spider's web has also been used externally, with asserted advan- 

 tage, as a styptic in wounds, and a healing application in superficial ulcers. 

 Spiders themselves were formerly employed in the treatment of intermit- 

 tent fever, and the application of the web to the cure of this disease is 

 not a measure of recent origin." — United States Dispensatory, 1834. 



King, in the first edition of his Eclectic Dispensatory, under the 

 head Tela Araneae, aims to balance the subject, as follows: 



"The medicinal species of spider from which the web is obtained is the 

 Tegeneria medicinalis of this country, which are found in cellars, barns 

 and other dark places; they are of a brown or blackish color. The web 

 of the field spider is said to be of no account, medicinally, while that of 

 the house spider is reputed to possess extraordinary virtues. There are 



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