DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 127 



music and dancing, have long been celebrated : but after 

 all there seems to have been more of fraud than of truth 

 in the business; and the whole evil appears to consist 

 in swelling and inflammation. Dr. Clavitio submitted 

 to be bitten by this animal, and no bad effects ensued ; 

 and the Count de Borch, a Polish nobleman, bribed a 

 man to undergo the same experiment, in whom the 

 only result was a swelling in the hand, attended by into- 

 lerable itching. The fellow's sole remedy was a bottle 

 of wine, which charmed away all his pain without the 

 aid of pipe and tabor a . 



There is however a spider (Aranea IS-guttata Rossi) 

 the bite of which is said to be very dangerous, and even 

 mortal. Thiebaut de Berneaud, in his Voyage to EIba h , 

 affirms that in the Volterrano he knew that several coun- 

 try people and domestic animals died in consequence of 

 it. And according to Mr. Jackson, a spider, called 

 there the Tendaraman, is found in Marocco which has 

 venomous powers equally formidable. The bite of this 

 insect, which is about the size and colour of a hornet but 

 rounder, and spins a web so fine as to be almost invisi- 

 ble, is said to be so poisonous that the person bitten sur- 

 vives but a few hours. In the cork forests the sports- 

 man, eager in his pursuit of game, frequently carries 

 away on his garments this fatal insect, which is asserted 

 always to make towards the head before inflicting its 

 deadly wound . 



I suspect you will think this list long enough; and I 

 believe it includes the most remarkable insects that as- 

 sail the surface of our bodies, to answer either the de- 



■ Amoreux, 217-226. See also 67-70. b p. 31. 



c Jackson's Marocco, second edit. 



