49 



spiders in a house of a 100 feet long, which ha 

 has proved by repeated experiments. Neither 

 can I recommend the use of mercurial medi- 

 cines. If we but for a moment consider the 

 natural habit of the insect, and the situations in 

 which it is generally to be found in greatest 

 abundance, we may readily perceive, that an 

 arid dryness, in the enclosed air of the house, 

 accompanied with a greater or less degree of 

 heat, is evidently the most congenial to its ani- 

 mal faculties ; therefore, we must necessarily 

 conclude, that the opposite extreme must prove 

 fatal to its existence. 



To accomplish this, there is nothing neces- 

 sary more than the free, but well directed use, 

 of common water; either by Ksteam, or with the 

 hand-syringe. The steam, by creating a line dew 

 in the house, prevents the insects from extend- 

 ing its slender web from leaf to leaf, and thus 

 checks its progress ; while the syringe, by su- 

 perior force, breaks the ligaments of those al- 

 ready made, and in most instances washes the 

 insects to the ground ; where, although it may 

 recover its fall for the first, or second applica- 

 tion, it is in the end sure to perish. 



They will sometimes however, elude the 



£ 



