A R A N E A. 
the threads above-mentioned, and which it binds like a co¬ 
vering almoft all around the air-bubble. Then it afeends 
again for another air-bubble ; and thus proceeds until it 
has conftruCted a large aerial apartment under water, which 
it enters into or quits at pleafure. The male conftruTs 
one for himfelf near the female ; and, when love invites, 
lie breaks through the thread walls of the female’s dwel¬ 
ling, and the two bubbles attached to the bellies of both 
unite into one, forming one large nuptial chamber. The 
female is fometimes laid for a whole day together llretched 
on her back, waiting for the arrival of the male, without 
motion, and feemingly as if dead. As loon as he enters, 
and glides over her, ihe feems to be brought to life again, 
gets on her legs and runs after the male, who makes his 
efcape with all pollible fpeed. The female takes care of 
the young, and conftrudls fimilar apartments on purpofe 
for them. The figure of this fpider has nothing remark¬ 
able ; and would be overlooked among a crowd of curio- 
flties, if the fpectator be unacquainted with its lingular 
art of conftrufting an aerial habitation under water, and 
thus uniting together the properties of both elements. It 
lodges during the winter in empty fhells, which it dexter- 
oully fiiuts up with a web. 
The tarantula, has molt commonly the bread and belly 
of an a(h-colour; the legs are likewife afh-coloured, with 
blackilh rings on the under part; the fangs or nippers 
are red on the inner fide, the red being blackilh : twerof 
its eyes are larger than the other, red, and placed in the 
front; four other eyes are placed in a tranfverfe direction 
towards the mouth ; the other two are nearer the back : 
it has two antennae or feelers. It is a native of Italy, Cy¬ 
prus, Barbary, Corfica, Perfia, and the Eaft Indies. It 
lives in bare fields, where the lands are fallow, but not 
■very hard ; and, from its antipathy to damp and fhade, 
choofes for its relidence the riling part of the ground fa¬ 
cing the ealf. Its dwelling is about four inches deep, 
and half an inch wide ; at the bottom it is curved, and 
there the infedf fits in wet weather, and cuts its way out 
if water gains upon it. It weaves a net at the mouth of 
the hole. Thefe fpiders do not live quite a year. In July 
they ftied their (kin, and proceed to propagation ; which 
from a mutual diftruft, as they frequently devour one ano¬ 
ther, is a work undertaken with great circumfpedtion. 
They lay about feven hundred and thirty eggs, which are 
hatched in the fpring; but the parent does not live to lee 
her progeny, having expired early in the winter. The 
ichneumon fly is their molt formidable enemy. 
The bite of the tarantula is faid to occalion an inflam¬ 
mation of the part, which in a few hours brings on lick - 
nefs, -difficulty of breathing, and univerfal faintnefs. 
The perfon afterwards is affected with a delirium, and 
fometimes is feized with a deep melancholy. The fame 
fymptoms return annually, in fome cafes, for feveral 
years, and at laft terminate in death. Mufic, it ltas been 
pretended, is the only cure. A mufician is brought, who 
tries a variety of air-, till at laft he hits upon one that 
urges the patient to dance; the violence of which exercife 
produces a proportionable agitation of the vital fpirits, 
attended with a coniequent degree of perfpiration, the cer¬ 
tain confequence of which is a cure. Such are the cir- 
cumftances that have been generally related, and long cre¬ 
dited, concerning the bite of this animal. Kircher, in his 
Mufurgia, gives a very particular account of the fymptoms 
and cure, llluftrated by hiftories of cafes. Among thefe, 
he mentions a girl, who, being bitten by this infect, could 
be cured only by the mulic of a drum. lie then proceeds 
to relate, that a certain Spaniard, trailing to the efficacy 
ol mulic in the cure ot the frenzy.occalioned by the bite 
of the tarantula, fubmitted to be bitten on the hand by 
two ot thefe creatures, of different colours, and poftefTed 
of different qualities. The venom was no fooner diffulid 
about lus body, than the fymptoms of the diforder began 
to appear; upon which, harpers, pipers, and other nuili- 
cians, were lent for, who by various kinds of airs endea¬ 
voured to route him from that ftupor into which he was 
• Vo l. II. No. 56. 
fallen: but here it wasobferved, that the bites of the two 
infeTs had produced contrary effects ; for by one he was 
incited to dance, and by the other he was re (framed there¬ 
from ; and in this conflict of nature the patient expired. 
Kircher, to account for the cure of the bite of the tarantula’ 
by mulic, fays of the poifon, 1 hat it is (harp, gnawing, and 
bilious ; and that it is received and incorporated into the 
medullary fubftance of the fibres. With refpect to the 
mulic, he fays, That the founds of chords have a power 
to rarefy the air to a certain harmonica! pitch ; and that, 
the air thus rarefied, penetrating the pores of the patient’s 
body,• affects the m'ulcles, arteries, and minute fibres, and 
incites him to dance; which exercife begets a perfpiration, 
in which the poifon evaporates. And, unfatisfaCfory as 
this theory appears, the belief of it has prevailed among 
the ablelf of modern phyficians. Sir Thomas Brown, fo 
far from difputing it, fays, That fince many atteft the fact 
from experience, and that the learned Kircher hath pofi- 
tively averred it, and let down the longs and tunes folemnlv 
tiled for the cure of the difeafe, and lince fome alfo affirm 
that the tarantula itfelf will dance at the found of mufic, 
he fliall not at all queftion if. 
Farther, that eminent Italian phyfician Baglivi, a native 
of Apulia, the country where the tarantula is produced, 
has written a did'ertation De anatomia , mo>fu, et rjfcMibus, 
Tarantu/a. I11 this he deferibes the region of Apulia where 
the tarantula is produced, with the anatomy and figure of 
the infeed and its eggs, illuftrated by an engraving ; he 
mentions particularly the fymptoms that follow from the 
bite, and the cure of the difeafe by mufic, with a variety 
of hiftories of cures thus wrought, many of them commu¬ 
nicated by perfons who were eye-witnell’es of the procefs. 
Ludovicus Valetta, a Celeftine monk of Apulia, alio pttb- 
lillied at Naples, in the year 1706, a treatife upon this 
fpider, in which lie not only anfvvers the objections of 
thole who deny the whole thing, but gives, from his own 
knowledge, feveral inftances of perfons who had differed 
this way, fome of whom were of great families, and fo 
far from being dillemblcrs, that they would at any rate, 
to avoid fliame, have concealed the misfortune which had 
befallen them. The honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, like- 
vvife, in his treatife of “ Languid and unheeded Motions,” 
fpeaking of the bite of the tarantula, and the cure of the 
difeafe which follows it by means of mufic, fays, That, 
having himfelf had fome doubts about the matter, he was, 
after ftrict inquiry, convinced that the relations in the main 
were true. And laftly, Dr. Mead, in his “ Mechanical 
Account of Poifons,” has given an effay on the tarantula., 
containing the fubftance of the above relations, which he 
endeavours to confirm by his own rea Coning thereon. 
Yet, notwithftanding tire number and weight of thefe 
authorities, and the general acquielcence of learned and 
ingenious men in the opinion that the bire of the tarantula 
is poifonous, and that, the cure of the diforder occalioned 
by it is effecled by mulic, we have reafon to apprehend 
that the whole is a miftake. In the Philofophical Tranf- 
aCfions for the year 1672, p. 406. is an extrart of a letter 
from Dr. Thomas Cornelio, a Neapolitan phyfician, to 
John Doddington, Efq. his majelty’s reiident at Venice, 
communicated by the latter, in which, fpeaking of his 
intention of fending to Mr. Doddington fome tarantulas, 
he lays, “ Meanwhile I (hall not omit to impart to you 
what was related to me a few days lince by a judicious 
and unprejudiced perfon y which is, that, being in the 
country of Otranto, where thofe inlefts are in great num¬ 
bers, there was a man, who, thinking himfelf filing by 
a tarantula, (hewed in his neck a fniall Ipeck, about which 
in a very fhort time there arofe fome pimples full of a fe- 
rous humour; and that, in a few hours after, the poor 
man was forely afflicted with violent fymptoms, as fyn- 
copes, very great agitations, giddinefs of the head, and 
vomiting; but that, without any inclination at all to 
dance, and without a delire of having any mulical inftr'u- 
ments, he miferably died within two days. The fame 
perfon affirmed to me, that all.thofe that think themlel-ves 
K bitten 
