lee ih tee ea i’ 
972 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
In order to compare the effects of spider venom with that of hymen- 
opterous insects, Mr. Blackwall touched to his tongue the poison emitted 
under like circumstances with the above from the sting of the common 
wasp (Vespa vulgaris), the hive bee (Apis melifi- 
ca), and the humble bee (Bombus terrestris). A 
powerfully acrid, pungent taste was the immediate 
consequence of applying the insect poison to the 
tongue. 
A contrast equally remarkable was evinced 
when these insect fluids were transmitted into the 
recent wound. That secreted by the in- 
sects caused inflammation, accompanied 
by acute pain, effects which, if pro- 
Fig. 248. A falx and"fang (f)of duced at all by that secreted by the spiders, were 
Drassus. (After Beck.) ’ 
scarcely appreciable. 
Baron Walekenaer also experimented upon his own person, allowing 
himself to be bitten by the largest species of spiders around Paris without 
consequent swelling or reddening. The small punctures made by : 
Walek- the spider’s fangs gave him no other sensation than would haye 
enaer’s 3 ee 
Witness. Deen produced by a pin or a needle thrust into the finger. It 
is his judgment that the venom of a spider has not as great 
an effect upon man as that of a wasp, bee, bed bug, flea, or even smaller 
insects. ! 
Rev. Pickard-Cambridge often tested the absence of venom in some of 
the strongest British species.2> Dugés made experiments upon himself with 
the largest spiders, such as Segestria and Tegenaria, 
without producing any physical pain or wound that 
could not readily be dissipated. M. Eugene Simon re- 
cords that he was struck in his finger by the fangs of 
Lycosa tarentula, which affected him after the fashion 
of the prick of two needles. The pain was lively, the 
blood flowed, but the little wound healed without any 
special ill effects. A correspondent of “Science Gos- 
sip”* says that his son was bitten in his closed hand 'c.249. Thesternumand 
by a spider, which left two small blood stains. His acre 
wife was bitten, but there was simply a slight swelling. oo (ANE FIRE 
Another correspondent writes that a boy was bitten at 
Cape Colony by a large spider, which is called a tarantula, so badly as to 
make his finger bleed, but no further effect followed. 
Mr. George B. Lownes, a gentleman living in the suburbs of Phila- 
delphia, informed me that on one occasion, while walking through a lane, 
Inocula- 
tion Test. 
1 Aptéres, Vol. II., page 423. 2 Spiders of Dorset, Vol. I., Introduction, page xxy. 
’ Histoire Naturelle des Araignees, page 27. 
4G. B., Science Gossip, September, 1868, page 231. 
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