Chap, 27.] 
VARIETIES or THE SPIDER. 
401 
numerous kinds ; one of which resembles the ant, but is much 
larger, with a red head, black as to the other parts of the 
body, and covered with white spots. Its sting is much more 
acute than that of the wasp, and it lives mostly in the vicinity 
of ovens and mills. The proper remedy is, to present before 
the eyes of the person stung another insect of the same de- 
scription, a purpose for which they are preserved when found 
dead. Their husks also, found in a dry state, are beaten up 
and taken in drink for a similar purpose. The young of the 
weasel, too, as already^^ stated, are possessed of a similar pro- 
perty. The Greeks give- the name of phalangion" also to a 
kind of spider, but they generally distinguish it by the surname 
of the wolf."^^ A third kind, also known as the '^phalan- 
gium,'^ is a spider with a hairy*''^ body, and a head of enormous 
size. When opened, there are found in it two small worms, 
they say : these, attached in a piece of deer's skin, before sun- 
rise, to a woman's body, will prevent conception, according to 
what Caecilius, in his Commentaries, says. This property lasts, 
however, for a year only ; and, indeed, it is the only one of all 
the anti-conceptives^^ that I feel myself at liberty to mention, 
in favour of some women whose fecundity, quite teeming with 
children,^^ stands in need of some such respite. 
There is another kind again, called rhagion,"^^ similar to 
a black grape in appearance, with a very diminutive mouth, 
situate beneath the abdomen, and extremely short legs, which 
have all the appearance of not being fully developed. The bite 
of this last insect causes fully as much pain as the sting of the 
scorpion, and the urine of persons who are injured by it, pre- 
sents filmy appearances like cobwebs. The asterion^^ would be 
identical with it, were it not distinguished by white streaks 
upon the body : its bite causes failing in the knees. But 
worse than either of these last, is a blue spider, covered with 
black hair, and causing dimness of the sight and vomiting of 
a matter like cobwebs in appearance. A still more dangerous 
kind is one which differs only from the hornet, in form, in 
45 In c. 16 of this Book. 46 "Lupus." See B. xi. c. 28. 
4' The Tarantula has been suggested, but that is a native of Italy. 
48 "Atocium." 49 " Plena liberis.'' 
^ From 'pd^, a " grape.'* 
^1 Or starred " spider. Nicander describes all these varieties of the 
Phalangium. 
VOL. V. D D 
