244 ON THE POISON OF ANIMALS 
periments seems to be, that there is nothing to 
apprehend from the bite of the most powerful 
British spiders, even when inflicted at a moment of 
extreme irritation and in hot sultry weather, the 
pain occasioned by it being little, if any, more than 
is due to the laceration and compression the injured 
part has sustained. 
The manner in which spiders are affected when 
pierced by the fangs of animals of their own order 
demands attention in the next place. 
2. Haperiments on Spiders. 
On the 22nd of July, 1846, a male Zegenaria 
civilis, in a violent struggle with a female of the 
same species, deeply inserted his fangs near the 
middle of the dorsal region of her abdomen, and 
retained his hold for several seconds; from the 
punctures thus made a brown fluid issued copiously, 
and in a few minutes coagulated. The injured 
spider appeared to suffer very little from the severe 
wounds it had received, as it speedily constructed a 
small web in the phial in which it was confined, and 
continued for more than a year to feed freely on 
the flies introduced to it. The thermometer, at the 
time the experiment was made, indicated a tempera- 
ture of 74°. 
In a hostile encounter between two female spiders 
of the species Segestria senoculata, on the 29th of 
