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the bed, and crying out from the same iancinatiug pains running up into the abdomen 

 and back, the muscles of the whole body strongly contracted, especially the abdom- 

 inal ; there was high fc\ er, the body in a profuse perspiration, and the pulse hard and 

 quick. He gave me much the same history. He had gone out to the privy after his sup- 

 jjer, had sat on the hole, had felt the web, and almost immediately the bite on the glans 

 penis, followed quickly by the agonizing pains, so that it was with great difiuculty 

 that he reached the house. I gave him large doses of morphia, hypodermatically^ and 

 plenty of whisky before he found any relief. This man was sick in bed three weeks; 

 he had fever lasting several days, and some diarrhoea, and he got up much reduced in 

 flesh, verj weak, and his muscles all sore from the tetanic contractions. 



A third case was that of a strong, muscular white man, who sent for me at mid- 

 night, after trying in vain various measures to relieve his violent pains in the stomach 

 and back. He gave me precisely the same history as the other two. He went into 

 his garden after supper to attend to his flowers, went into the privy, sat on the hole, 

 felt the spider's web, and almost immediately the bite. For some minutes he felt no 

 inconvenience ; gradually the severe lancinating pains came on, shooting up into the 

 abdomen and back, and they increased to such an extent that he sent for me. I 

 found the same restlessness, anxiety, tetanic contractions, and agonizing pains as in 

 the other cases. I found, moreover, on the glans penis the point of puncture. It 

 was a bright red point, surrounded by a white zone, and an outer red areola, the en- 

 tire spot measuring about two lines. The testicles were drawn up, and the abdom- 

 inal muscles very tense and hard. Morphia and stimulants relieved the case, and the 

 patient was out iu two days. 



The fourth case was that of a boy two years old. His nurse had set him on a privy 

 seat which had not been used for some time, and he immediately complained of some- 

 thing biting him. When seen by me soon after, I found the prepuce very much 

 swollen and edematous, but the child did not complain much. The swelling disap- 

 peared rapidly. The evidence in this case is very unsatisfactory, of course. 



My fifth case was that of a colored woman, who gave a history of a spider dropping 

 from the ceiling and biting her on the face as she lay in bed. There was a great deal 

 <r>f oedema and pain, and the patient sufiered several days. I could find no distinct 

 point of puncture, and the spider was not found. 



In my sixth case a man in putting on his sock in the morning was bitten on the 

 toe, giving him a great deal of pain. He was quickly relieved by morphine. He 

 brought me the spider, which I immediately put in alcohol for future examination. 

 Unfortunately, while away from the city, the specimen was lost. There was a red 

 spot on the abdomen, and it resembled very much the female Latrodecius mactans fig- 

 ured in your journal. 



I am sorry the evidence in these cases is not more direct, and that lean not produce 

 the spiders. I made diligejit search iu each case, but the webs had been brushed 

 away. While it may be questioned that these cases were spider bites, the collective 

 evidence is in favor, I think, of that explanation. One thing is certain — sitting on ohl 

 privy seats is not without its dangers, in this part of the country, at SiX\y rate. Scor- 

 pions are not to be found in Georgia, certainly not in this part of the State. I know 

 of no species of ant capable of producing such a serious bite. We can throw out a 

 bee or wasp sting. The svmproms all pointed to the introduction of a venom or ani- 

 mal alkaloid allied to tetanine. The evidence in four cases of sitting on a i)rivy seat, 

 of feeling the web, and immediately the bite, points strongly to the spider as the 

 cause of the trouble. 



The intensity of the symptoms in the second case, where the patient was a strong 

 and vigorous man, would lead one to believe in the possibility of a fatal spider bite 

 when the patient was feeble or especially sensitive to the venom of spiders. Of 

 course, it is a mere conjecture as to the species of spider that caused the trouble iu 

 these cases. In the first three cases the symptoms were so similar as to suggest but 

 one species. And yet it is not impossible that with spiders, as with the venomous 



