EFFECTS AND USES OF SPIDER POISON. 273 
he stopped to pick up a flat stone under which a ground spider (probably 
Lycosa scutulata) was nested in a little cave along with her cocoon. The 
spider sprang upon his finger, making a puncture like the prick of a 
pin. The wound bled, but had no other inconvenient effect. 
My own personal experience with spider bites has been very limited, 
as I never but once could succeed in teasing my captives to bite me. 
While roughly handling a large Epeira insularis, August 29th, 
The Au- 1 was struck by her in the ball of the thumb. The fangs left 
mors EX two slight punctures about one-eighth inch apart, At the mouth 
Pisa, ght punctures about one-eighth inch apart. e mou 
of each puncture on the skin was a little drop of transparent 
colorless liquid, evidently venom, which had been extruded from the poison 
gland. I waited a little space to allow this to enter the system, and then 
applied the liquid to the tip of the tongue. It had an acrid taste, leaving 
a remainder in the mouth something like the astringency of alum. Not 
the slightest inconvenience resulted from this wound. No irritation or 
swelling of any sort followed, and I was conscious of no pain except the 
very slight sensation produced by the original incision, which was no greater 
than that of the prick of a dull pin point. 
TTY. 
We turn now to some of the evidence that spiders do inflict a serious 
wound. Mr. J. M. Meek, of Waiwera, New-Zealand, sent the following 
narrative of the effects of the bite of the katipo, or native spi- 
Venom- der,! which appears to be a species of Latrodectus: “On the 
ae. al morning of the 24th ult., at three o'clock, my son (a man of 
ae thirty-one years of age) was awakened from his sleep by the 
Zealand, bite of one of those poisonous insects, and came into our bed- 
room about an hour afterwards, and exclaimed to his mother 
and myself, ‘I am bitten by one of those spiders that the natives have 
so often spoken to me about, and am full of pain. See, here it is, in the 
bottom of the candlestick.’ I looked at the insect, whose body was about 
the size of an ordinary pea, and in color nearly approaching to black. 
His mother, on looking at his back, saw the puncture the spider had made, 
and immediately commenced sucking the wound. I proceeded to the hotel, 
and obtained the services of Dr. Mohnbeer, when, on my return with him 
to my house, my son was suffering the most excruciating pain in the groin, 
the virus apparently working its way in that direction. After an applica- 
tion of ammonia by the doctor, the pain shifted from the groin and worked 
its way up the spine, affecting the arms and chest during the remainder of 
the day and lasting till the following morning, my son moaning with pain 
the whole time. 
“On Tuesday the pain became intense, the virus working its way into 
1 Popular Science Gossip, 1877, page 46. 
