BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 69 
human beings has no doubt been greatly exaggerated, and by far the great- 
est number of species are harmless to the vast majority of men; neverthe- 
less, there is no reason to doubt that a few species secrete a poisonous fluid 
which is unusually virulent in its action upon men, producing painful, 
serious, and, rarely, even fatal wounds. These exceptions are so few that 
they give no warrant, or the very slightest, for the almost universal dread 
of spiders of all sorts and sizes. Man has no more and probably much 
less reason to fear injury from these animals than from ordinary irritating 
insects, and on the other hand is immensely their debtor by. their services 
in holding in check the increase of the insect hordes. 
It will suffice here to note one well authenticated instance of injurious 
results from spider poison, as reported by the distinguished arachnologist, 
Professor Bertkau, of Bonn. This naturalist has recently found 
Professor on grass and leaves, near Bingen on the Rhine, a number of 
Hepat Species of Chiraianthium nutrix, which occurs also in Switzer- 
Snot: land, France, and Italy, and has assured himself that the species 
is poisonous. He was bitten on his finger ends three times by 
these spiders. The pain was severe, burning, and extended almost instan- 
taneously over the arm and to the breast, and was most intense in the 
wound itself and in the armpits. On the second morning after the second 
bite the pain disappeared, but returned upon pressure of the bitten spot, 
and changed to an itching sensation. When he was bitten again, four days 
later, both the pain and afterward the itching, especially, returned in the 
first two bites, and this time continued for almost a fortnight, when all 
unusual feeling had disappeared, while the later bites, which had festered, 
were still visible. The results immediately following the bite were a slight 
swelling and inflammation, which gradually disappeared. It is highly 
satisfactory to find a case of this kind described by a careful and distin- 
guished specialist like Professor Bertkau, and indubitably traced to a defi- 
nite species, instead of attributed to the imeyitable and indefinite black 
spider, 
Per contra, a well known fellow citizen, and intelligent associate of our 
Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Mr. Francis R. Welsh, thus 
writes me, apropos of the observations contained in my first vol- 
ume: “ When I was a small boy one of my friends and myself 
used to catch, carry about, and tease spiders with impunity. I 
was neyer bitten, but my friend was once by a ‘black spider ’—you know 
how vaguely the term is used. I can only say that it was almost cer- 
tainly not an Orbweaver, but was probably either a Tubeweaver or Wan- 
derer. The spider, as well as I can remember, was about two inches long 
when fully extended. The bite simply caused a little inflammation, and 
can be best compared to a severe mosquito bite.” 
It is probable that this expresses the ordinary effect of a wound in- 
flicted by the indigenous species of this geographical province; while that 
Per Con- 
tra. 
