280 * AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



the power, or at least the wish, for such excursions. Among the latter 

 Blackwall' ascertained that Tegenaria civilis and Ciniflo atrox are to be 



reckoned ; among the former, the most skillful balloonists ob- 

 Balloon- served by him were Thomisus cristatus and Lycosa saccata. The 

 ing pe- j.^rgest individuals of the first named species seen to take aerial 



journeys measured one-sixth inch between the extreme points of 

 the head and abdomen, one-tenth inch across the broadest part of the ab- 

 domen, and weighed about a quarter of a grain. The largest individ- 

 uals of Lycosa saccata seen floating in the air were of similar weight and 

 dimensions. 



IX. 



Most readers of general and theological literature possess some knowl- 

 edge of the position held by Dr. Jonathan Edwards as a philosopher. His 

 work on " The Will " still ranks as one of the greatest books 

 Dr. Jona- ^vritten by an American ; but the fact that Jonathan Edwards is 

 J entitled to a place among the pioneers of natural history has 



heretofore been limited to a small number of persons specially 

 interested in science. To that little band it gives particular pleasure to 

 note the recognition of that fact which the last few months have brought. 

 In the first volume of this work I have already alluded to the observations 

 of Master Jonatliau Edwards upon spiders, and have credited him with an- 

 ticipating by at least one hundred and sixty years some of the most inter- 

 esting observations which I have made and published under the supposition 

 that they were original with myself.''^ 



It is proper at this point to call attention to some facts in the aero- 

 nautic habits of spiders which this lad made known. Dr. Sereno E. 

 Dwight, the editor of the "Life and AVorks of .lonathan Edwards," appears 

 to have been the first to publish a letter written by him, when a boy of 

 twelve or thirteen years old, to an English correspondent of his father's, 

 in wliich letter he describes what he has seen of the habits of " flying 

 si)iders." The scientific world was made acquainted with the matter as 

 early as 1832 by the editor of " Silliman's .Journal,"-' who published in full 

 the above named letter as printed by Dr. Dwiglit. 



The January number of the "Andover Review" takes up this subject 



anew, and in a valuable paper* Professor Smyth covers the wliole ground 



of Edwards' studies, and permits us to look into the operations 



ur^iat ^^ '^'^^ young mind while pursuing liis remarkable observations 



and experiments. An unpublished manuscript is therein edited, 



which appears to have been the original record of the boy's studies, from 



' Researches in Zoology, page 275. ^ Volume I., page 69. 



' American Journal of Sciences and Arts, Vol. XXII., 1832, pages 112, 11,S. 

 * " The Flying Spider : Ohservations hy Jonathan Edwards when a Boy," Andover Re- 

 view, 1890, Prof. Egbert C. Smyth. 



