207 



and 1841 there were a uiimber of such accidents. He shows that they 

 occur most abundantly in the years of the migratory locusts and shows 

 that such locusts were easily overcome by this spider. The Royal 

 Academy of Medicine and Surgery at Barcelona in 1830 appointed a 

 commission to investigate the dangerous accidents caused during the 

 summer of that year by the spider. The members of the commission 

 were not entomologists and their report was almost worthless. In 1833 

 there were a number of other cases and Dr. Graells was appointed by 

 the Academy to investigate. He found as a matter of course that the 

 reports were greatly exaggerated. A number of cases were found, how- 

 ever, and investigated, which were unquestionably caused by the bite 

 of this spider, and the following symptoms were recorded : 



A double puncture surrounded by two red circles, wliicli unite, together forming an 

 edematous areole wLicli marks the seat of a tumor which develops later. The pain 

 extends and soon occui)ies the length of the bitten limb, and often reaches to the axil- 

 lary or inguinal glands, according to the limb bitten. These glands tumefy and be- 

 come painful and the skin between them and the bite becomes marked with livid 

 spots which seem to follow the course of the lymphatic vessels. The pain continues, 

 reaching the body even to the abdominal and thoracic cavities, with a sensation of 

 burning heat, strong constriction or soreness of throat, tension of the abdomen, 

 tenesmus, and extreme headache, which makes itself felt along the spinal column ; 

 soon followed by general convulsions, more particularly in the extremities, follo\^'ed 

 often by insensibility, especially in the feet, which are ordinarily livid, while the 

 whole body is swollen. This imposing array of symptoms brings about a very marked 

 low spirit on the i^art of the patients, indicated by their expressions of despair, of 

 profound affliction, or fear concerning the return of the health, for tliev believe them- 

 selves threatened with approaching death. 



They continually change from place to place in their bed, giving utterance to sighs 

 and plaintive cries, carrying their hands to their heads mechanically, or they say that 

 they feel their brains pricked by pins. The face is sometimes red and burning, at 

 others pale. The difficulty of respiration is marked, the x^ulse is very low, quick, 

 irregular, the skin cold and rather moist from an abundant cold and viscid perspira- 

 tion; at the same time the patient complains that his bowels are burning and asks 

 for fresh water. In some cases the sight is almost totally' obscured, the conjunctiva 

 injected; in others the voice becomes weakened, and perhaps a ringing in the ears 

 becomes very marked. Sometimes livid spots appear over the whole body. The in- 

 tensity of these symptoms varies according to the susceptibility of the individual, to 

 the strength of the Latrodectus, and also the number of bites which the patient has 

 received. 



Recovery comes sooner or later, according to the strength of the patient, the energy 

 of the remedies, and the iiromptuess of their effect. In all cases it is announced by 

 the perspiration, which from cold and viscid becomes warm and vaporous ; by the 

 quickening and regularity of the pulse; by increasing facility in respiration and 

 urination ; by the cessation of the inflammation of the glands and of the aching in 

 the brain and spinal cord, which passes into a sort of lethargy which may be more 

 the effect of the laudanum given than a symptom of the disease. 



Mr. Pierret, in the same periodical for 1813, page 8, states that 

 this same spider inhabits Corsica also, and that its bites there cauise 

 symptoms similar to those described by Dr. Graells. It appears in the 

 heat of summer and is found i)rincipally in houses. When an inhab- 

 itant is bitten the remedy consists in exposing the wounded ])artto 

 strono' heat from a furnace and in rubbiu"- it with .i;-arlic. 



