614 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



donia reckon a large species of Epeira amongst the choicest delicacies of the land. 

 Even in Europe some people enjoy a spider, and the famous astronomer Lalande was 

 far from being singular in this respect. They are said to taste like filberts, and the 

 proper way to eat them is to take off the legs, and to swallow the abdomen, after 

 having washed and rubbed it with butter. The property of spiders' webs to stop an 

 hemorrhage or the bleeding of a wound is a well-known fact, and they have also been 

 recommended as an anti-febrifuge. In several countries where the insects cause great 

 ravages, the services of the spiders are duly appreciated. Thus in the West Indies, a 

 large and formidable trap-door spider, which would make a European start back with 

 horror, is looked upon with pleasure by the islanders of the torrid zone, who respect it 

 as a sacred animal, by no means to be disturbed or harmed, as it delivers them from 

 the cockroaches, which otherwise would overrun their dwellings. Those who do not 

 possess these spiders take good care to purchase and transport them into their houses, 

 expecting from them similar services to those we derive from a good domestic cat. 



When we consider the large size of many of the tropical spiders, and the strength 

 of their threads, it seems probable that their cocoons might be put to some use. We 

 are told by Azara, in his " Travels to Paraguay," that a spider exists in that country 

 the silk of whose spherical cocoons, measuring an inch in diameter, is spun on account 

 of its permanent orange color. The eyes and noses of the women employed in 

 unravelling the cocoons are said to water considerably, though without their perceiving 

 any pungent smell, or feeling any other inconvenience. This spider is, perhaps, the 

 same as that which, according to M. de Bomare, is known in the interior of South 

 America un(ier the name of the silk-spider. Its cocoon is of the size of a pigeon's 

 egg, the silk is soft, and can be easily carded. Attempts have also been made in 

 Europe to utilize the threads of the large indigenous spiders. About the beginning 

 of the last century, M. Bon, a Frenchman, who seems to have been the first that ever 

 put the idea into practice, collected a sufficient quantity to make some stockings and 

 gloves, which he presented to the king, Louis XIY., and to the Academy of Sciences 

 in Paris. His discovery caused some sensation at the time, and his dissertation on 

 the subject was translated into all European languages, and at a later period even into 

 the Chinese, by order of the Emperor Kien-Long. The celebrated Reaumur, however, 

 who was commissioned by the Academy to report on M. Bon's discovery, pointed out 

 how difficult it would be to put it to any extensive use, as it would require no less 

 than 55,296 of the Epeira diadema to produce a single pound of silk ; and how were 

 all these to be provided with flies ? 



If the extreme fineness of the spider's threads is an obstacle to their being spun 

 and woven, this property, united with their metallic brilliancy, renders them an excel- 

 lent material for the construction of the micrometers used for astronomical purposes : 

 the finest silver thread which it is possible to spin having a diameter of g- ji- of an inch, 

 while spiders' threads measure only to^of or even -g-iMnr- Troughton, an eminent 

 English instrument maker, first thought of substituting them for the silver-threads 

 then in use, and they were found to answer so well that since that time they have 

 been constantly employed. 



The Scorpions, which even in Europe are reckoned among the most malignant in- 

 sects, are truly terrific in the torrid zone, where they frequently attain a length of 



