( 1 141 ) 
Delft in Holland^ Decemk 20« 1701. 
With the prefent I fend you my farther Obfervatians 
about Spiders, upon which fubjeQ: there occurred 
to me what follows, 
A certain Gentleman, that had often confider'd the na- 
ture of Spiders, and their Copulation, told me that one 
could fddom meet with the Males of the great Spidei^^ 
and that he believed the Females did kill and eat op the 
Males, 
This Gentleman had, order'd his Gardener to kill no 
SpiderSk 
; This Gentlemans Garden was large, and full of low 
Eruit-Trees, fo that the great numbers of Spiders in thofe 
Trees were very vifible to us^ and I was told by the fame 
Gentleman, that where we faw the Females oi the fmaller 
fort of Spiders, there v/as alio one Male 3 and I have ob- 
ferved the fame. . 
Now that which this Gentleman took for the Membrum 
Virile, was quite otherwife, and I- told him he was mifta- 
ken ^ for the more I view'd them the more I was con- 
vinced that they were two Working Inftruments, where- 
with the Spiders take up their Food, and ufe alfo inftead 
of fhort Feet. ^ 
This my Aflertion feem'd to the Gentleman Incredible ^ 
but when I placed the Working Inftruments before my 
Microfcopes, and gave him a Profpedof them he was ful- 
ly fatisfied ^ adding, that they could not be tho Membmm ■ 
Virile^ and that unlefs he had feen them thro the [Viicro- 
fcopes, he fhould never have believed them to be other- 
wife. 
Moreover, fince that time I have often been in places 
where Thirties, Nettles and other Weeds grew, where I 
faw feveral forts of Spiders, and in great numbers 3^ auvl 
obierv'd that when the Male Spiders . approacht the Fc^ 
