431 
A Cure for Ague . 
According to Lyly, the bee was impervious to the 
attacks of the spider, and might enter its web with 
impunity; “ though the spider poyson the fly, shee cannot 
infect the bee ” (. Euphues , p. 35). The belief that ague 
could be cured by wearing a spider hung round the neck 
in a nutshell has been called an “ old wives’ fable,” 
but Robert Burton, while he admits that he was in¬ 
debted to his mother for his knowledge of this remedy, 
yet, in apparent seriousness, endorses her belief in its 
efficacy himself, and supports it by quotations from other 
learned authors:— 
“ I first observed this amulet of a spider in a nut-shell lapped in 
silke, &c., so applied for an ague by my mother: whom although I 
knew to have excellent skill in chirurgery, sore eyes, aches, &c., and 
such experimental medicines, as all the country where she dwelt can 
witness, to have done many famous and good cures upon divers poor 
folks, that were destitute of help—yet, among all other experiments, 
this methought was most absurd and ridiculous: I could see no 
warrant for it. Quid aranece cum febre ? For what antipathy ? Till 
at length, dabbling amongst authors, as often I do, I found this very 
medicine in Dioscorides, approved by Matthiolus, repeated by Aldro- 
vandus, cap. de arance , lib. de insectis. I began to have a better 
opinion of it, and to give credit to amulets when I saw it in some 
parties answer to experiments.” (. Anatomy of Melancholy , vol. ii. 
P- 13h) 
Well may Mr. Harting ask, “ When such men are so 
credulous, how can we wonder at the superstitions of the 
illiterate ? ” Spiders were recommended by medieval 
physicians for various diseases; among others, for the 
gout:— 
“ Also that knotty whip of God, and mock of all physicians, the 
gowt, which learned men say can be cured by no remedy, findes help 
and cure by a spider layd on, if it be taken at that time when neither 
sun nor moon shineth, and the hinder legs pulled off, and put into a 
deers skin, and bound to the pained foot, and left on for some time.” 
So writes Thomas Muflett, “ a notable ornament to the 
company of physicians, a man of the most polite and 
