246 ON THE POISON OF ANIMALS 
female Lycosa agretyca, on the 30th of July, 1846, 
the temperature being 74°, the latter was wounded 
by the fangs of its assailant at the base of the coxa 
of the left posterior leg, and a transparent fluid, 
which soon coagulated, issued from the injured part. 
Nothing occurred afterwards to indicate that the 
Lycosa had suffered from the encounter. 
Two female spiders of the species Zpeira diadema 
engaged in a severe contest on the 30th of July, 
1846, the thermometer standing at 73°, when one of 
them was seized by the fangs of her antagonist near 
the middle of the right side of the abdomen. A 
brown fluid flowed from the punctures and soon 
coagulated, but the spider appeared to be only 
slightly and very briefly affected by the injury. 
A female Epeira diadema, in a highly excited state, 
bit itself near the middle of the femur of the left 
anterior leg, on the 5th of September, 1846. The 
temperature at the time was 69°, and a transparent 
fluid flowed copiously from the wounded part ; coagu- 
lation, however, quickly ensued, after which the spider 
manifested no unfavourable symptom whatever. 
Extensive mechanical injuries commonly prove 
fatal to spiders, whether received in conflicts with 
their congeners or otherwise, the extinction of life 
being more or less rapid in proportion to the vitality 
of the part lacerated; but no evidence supplied by 
the foregoing experiments indicates that the fluid 
emitted from the orifice in the fangs of the Aranetdea 
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