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Spiders  Used  in  Medicine. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     January,  1921. 
Spider  and  Spider  Web  in  Medicine. — At  least  since  the  time 
of  Pliny  (first  century  A.  D.)  literature  on  medicine  abounds  in 
references  to  the  use  of  spiders  and  their  webs.  The  ideas  of  most 
of  the  old  authors  concerning  the  medicinal  use  of  spiders,  as  may 
be  noted  in  the  following  quotations,  seem  little  more  than  "charm 
medicine"  or  superstition.    Let  us  quote  : 
Spiders.  "The  fly-catching  spider,  wrapt  in  a  linen  cloth  and  hanged  on 
the  left  arm,  is  good  to  drive  away  a  Quotidian,  saith  Trallianus  (sixth  cen- 
tury, A.  D.),  But  better  if  any  of  them  be  boiled  with  oil  of  bay  to  the  con- 
sistence of  a  liniment ;  if  you  anoint  the  arteries  of  the  wrists,  the  arms  and 
temples  before  the  fit,  the  fever  abates  and  seldom  comes  again.  Koronides 
or  Koranus*  A  spider  bruised  with  a  plaister  and  spread  on  a  cloth  and 
applied  to  the  temples,  cures  a  tertian.  Dioscorides  (first  or  second  century, 
A.  D.).  The  spider  called  Lycos,  put  in  a  quill,  and  hanged  on  the  breast 
doth  the  same;  Pliny  (first  century,  A.  D.).  That  house  spider  that  spins  a 
thick  fine  and  white  web,  shut  up  in  a  piece  of  leather  or  a  nut-shell,  and 
hanged  to  the  arm  or  neck,  is  thought  to  drive  away  the  fits  of  a  quartane. 
Dioscorides  saith  he  proved  it  to  be  true.  Three  living  spiders  put  into  oil, 
let  them  presently  boil  on  the  fire,  drop  some  of  that  oil  warm  into  the  ear 
that  is  in  pain,  and  it  profits  much.  Or  press  out  the  juice  of  spiders  with 
juice  of  roses,  and  put  it  in  with  wool.  Marcellus  Empiricus  (380-408,  A.  D., 
or  later).  Pliny  bids  infuse  them  in  vinegar  or  oil  of  roses  and  stamp  them 
and  then  drop  some  into  the  ear  with  saffron,  and  it  will  still  the  pain  cer- 
tainly: Discorides  affirms  as  much.  Sofratus  .  .  .  saith,  that  Cranaco- 
lapsus  (a  certain  spider)  drowned  in  oil,  is  a  present  remedy  against  poisons, 
as  the  Scholiast  of  Nicander  (second  century,  B.  C.)  professeth.  Aetius 
(about  500,  A.  D.)  for  suffocation  of  the  mothers,  applied  a  cerate  of  spider 
to  the  navel,  and  said  it  did  great  good." 
Spider  Web.  "The  spider's  web  is  put  into  the  unguent  against  Tet- 
ters, and  applied  to  the  swellings  of  the  fundament,  it  consumes  them  without 
pain.  Marcellus  Empiricus.  Pliny  saith  it  cures  runnings  of  the  eyes,  and 
laid  on  with  oil,  it  heals  up  wounds  in  the  joints.  Some  rather  use  the  ashes 
of  the  webs  with  Polenia  and  wine.  Our  chirurgians  (surgeons)  cure  warts 
thus :  They  wrap  a  spider's  ordinary  web  into  the  fashion  of  a  ball,  and  lay- 
ing it  on  the  wart,  they  set  it  on  fire,  and  so  let  it  burn  to  ashes,  by  this 
means  the  wart  is  rooted  out  by  the  roots,  and  will  never  grow  again.  Mar- 
cellus Empiricus  was  wont  to  use  the  web  of  spiders  found  in  the  Cypress 
tree  in  a  remedy  for  the  Gout  to  ease  the  pains.''— Mouffet,  "The  Theater  of 
Insects,"  1858,  page  1023. 
A  few  of  the  early  writers,  like  Antoninus  Pius,  and  more  dur- 
ing the  medieval  period,  used  the  web  to  stop  the  flow  of  blood. 
*  King  of  Persia,  who  wrote  a  work  on  natural  history. 
