Am.  Tour.  Pharm.  ) 
January,  1921.  J 
Spiders  Used  in  Medicine. 
-93 
For  this  purpose  it  was  also  used  by  the  American  Indians,  as 
well  as  in  domestic  practice,  no  doubt  with  a  real  value.  For 
example : 
"Antoninus  Pius  (86-161..  A.  D.)  was  wont  to  say,  that  the  quirks  of 
sophistry  were  like  to  Spiders'  Webs,  that  had  a  great  deal  of  art  and  in- 
genuity in  them,  but  very  little  profit.  But  how  often  hath  the  blood  run 
forth  from  the  body  most  miserably  by  a  fresh  wound  ?  Yet  it  had  been  easy 
to  have  stopped  it  by  laying  on  a  spider's  web."— Mouffet,  "The  Theater  of 
Insects/3 
"Telia  Aranearum,  Cobweb.— Every  one  knows  what  this  is,  and  how 
produced.  It  appears  not  in  medicinal  prescriptions,  but  as  accident,  for 
want  of  other  helps,  has  taught  its  use  to  common  people  for  stopping  blood 
in  a  fresh  wound.'  And  this  it  seems  to  do  by  its  extraordinary  fineness; 
which  makes  it  adhere  to.  and  top  up  the  mouths  of  the  vessels,  so  as  to 
prevent  the  effusion  of  their  costents." — Quincy's  Compleat  English  Dis- 
pensatory, 1749. 
"Aranearum  Telae  Pharm.  Edinb.,  Cobwebs.  These  are  applied  by  the 
common  people  for  stopping  the  bleeding  of  wounds ;  which  the  effect,  not 
by  any  styptic  power,  but  by  adhering  to  the  part,  and  closing  the  orifices  of 
the  vessels." — Lewis'  Materia  Medica,  London,  1768. 
"The  web  astringes  and  conglutinates,  and  is,  therefore,  vulnerary; 
restrains  bleedings,  and  prevents  inflammation.  The  country  people  have  a 
tradition,  that  a  small  quantity  of  spider's  web,  given  about  an  hour  before 
the  fit  of  an  ague,  and  repeated  immediately  before  it,  is  effectual  in  curing 
troublesome,  and  sometimes  obstinate  distemper.i  This  remedy  is  not  con- 
fined to  our  own  country,  for  I  am  well  informed  that  the  Indians  about 
North  Carolina  have  great  dependence  on  this  remedy  for  agues,  to  which 
they  are  much  subject;  and  I  am  acquainted  with  a  gentleman  long  resident 
in  those  parts,  who  assures  me  he  was  himself  cured  by  it  of  that  distemper. 
And,  indeed,  experience  confirms  the  efficacy  of  this  medicine  in  the  cure  of 
agues." — James,  New  English  Dispensatory,  London,  1747'. 
In  May,  1809,  The  Medical  and  Physical  Journal  of  London 
published  a  long  article  by  Dr.  Robert  Jackson,  calling  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  profession  the  medicinal  use  of  spider  web,  or  cobweb, 
in  the  treatment  of  intermitting  fevers.  Frequent  references  have 
been  made  to  this  article  by  subsequent  publications  in  Europe  and 
in  America.  After  Dr.  Jackson's  publication,  the  use  of  spider 
web  in  the  treatment  of  malarial  fevers  seems  to  have  been 
neglected  until  about  1865,  when  articles  by  Dr.  L.  M.  Jones  ap- 
peared in  "The  Lancet  and  Observer,"  Cincinnati,  and  in  Jones 
and  Scudder's  Materia  Medica.  These  again  brought  it  to  the 
attention  of  physicians : 
