DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 105 



equally deleterious. Amoreux, from a work of Turner, an 

 English writer on cutaneous diseases, has given the following 

 remarkable history of the ill effects produced by those of 

 spiders. When Turner was a young practitioner, he was 

 called to visit a woman, whose custom it was, every time she 

 went into the cellar with a candle, to burn the spiders and 

 their webs. She had often observed, when she thus cruelly 

 amused herself, that the odour of the burning spiders had so 

 much affected her head, that all objects seemed to turn round, 

 which was occasionally succeeded by faintings, cold sweats, 

 and slight vomitings : but, notwithstanding this, she found 

 so much pleasure in tormenting these poor animals, that 

 nothing could cure her of this madness, till she met with the 

 following accident : the legs of one of these unhappy spiders 

 happened to stick in the candle, so that it could not disengage 

 itself; and the body at length bursting, the venom was 

 ejaculated into the eyes and upon the lips of its persecutrix. 

 In consequence of this, one of the former became inflamed, 

 the latter swelled excessively, even the tongue and gums 

 were slightly affected, and a continual vomiting attended 

 these symptoms. In spite of every remedy the swelling of 

 the lips continued to increase, till at length an old woman, 

 by the simple application for fifteen days of the leaves and 

 juice of plantain, together with some spider's web, ran away 

 with all the glory of the cure.^ Ulloa gives us a remarkable 

 account of a species of spider, or perhaps mite, of a fiery red 

 colour, common in Popayan, called Coy a or Coyba, and 

 usually found in the corners of walls and among the herbage, 

 the venom of which is of such malignity, that on crushing 

 the insect, if any fall on the skin of either man or beast, it 

 immediately penetrates into the flesh, and causes large 

 tumours, which are soon succeeded by death. Yet, he 

 further observes, if it be crushed between the palms of the 

 hands, which are usually callous, no bad consequence ensues. 

 People who travel along the valleys of the Neyba, where 

 these insects abound, are warned by their Indian attendants, 

 if they feel any thing stinging them, or crawling on their 



1 Ainoreux, 210 — 212. 



