OF THE ORDER ARANEIDEA. 243 
space of five minutes, occasionally forcing its fangs 
deeper into. the flesh, and on quitting it voluntarily 
blood issued freely from the punctures. Due allow- 
ance being made for the strong degree of compression 
employed by this robust spider, the effects of its bite 
did not differ materially from those of a wound made 
near it at the same time with a needle of an average 
size, the intensity and duration of the pain being very 
similar in both instances. 
On several occasions, in the month of August, 1846, 
spiders of various species were induced, under the in- 
fluence of excited feelings, to seize a piece of clean 
window-glass with their fangs, when the transparent 
fluid which escaped from the small aperture near their 
extremity was deposited upon it. The application of 
this fluid to the tongue did not produce any sensible 
effect on that organ ; but the result was very different 
when the poison emitted under like circumstances 
from the sting of the common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris), 
the Hive-bee (4pis mellifica), or the Humble bee 
(Bombus terrestris) was so applied, a powerfully acrid 
pungent taste being the immediate consequence. A 
contrast equally remarkable was evinced when these 
fluids were transmitted into a recent wound—that 
secreted by the insects caused inflammation accom- 
panied by acute pain; effects which if produced at 
all by that secreted by the spiders, were scarcely 
appreciable. 
The legitimate conclusion deducible from the ex- 
R2 
