the SPIDER, a genus of insects belonging to the order of aptera, or insects without wings. All the species of spiders have eight legs, with three joints in each, and terminating in three crooked claws; eight eyes, two before, two behind, and the rest on the sides of the head. The mouth consists of two claws or talons, denticulated like a saw. A little below the point of the claw, there is a small hole, through which the spider emits a kind of poison. These claws are the weapons with which they kill flies, &c., for their food. The belly or hinder part is separated from the head and breast by a small thread-like tube. The skin or outer surface is a hard polished crust. Spiders have five tubercles or nipples at the extremity of the belly, whose apertures they can enlarge or contract at pleasure. It is through these apertures that they spin a gluey substance with which their bellies are full. They fix the end of their threads by applying these nipples to any substance, and the thread lengthens in proportion as the animal recedes from it. They can stop the issuing of the threads by contracting the nipples, and re-ascend by means of the claws on their feet, much in the same manner as some men warp up a rope. When the common house-spider begins her web, she generally chafes a place where there is a cavity, such as the corner of a room, that she may have a free passage on each side, to make her escape in case of danger. Then she fixes one end of her thread to the wall, and passes on to the other side, dragging the thread along with her (or rather the thread follows her as she proceeds), till she arrives at the other side, and there fixes the other end of it. Thus she passes and repasses, till she has made as many parallel threads as she thinks necessary for her purpose. After this, she begins again and crostes these by other parallel threads, which may be named the cross. These are the toils or snares which she prepares for entangling flies, and other small insects, which happen to light upon it. But, besides this large web, she generally weaves a small cell for herself, where she lies concealed watching for her prey. Betwixt this cell and the large web she has a bridge of threads, which, by communicating with the threads of the large one, both give her early intelligence when anything touches the web, and enables her to pass quickly in order to lay hold of it.
There are many other methods of weaving peculiar to different species of spiders. But, as they are all intended for the same purpose, it is needless to give particular descriptions of them.
Linnaeus enumerates 47 species of spiders: But it will be sufficient here to mention only the most remarkable and uncommon; as,
1. The calycina, with a round pale yellow belly, and two hollow points. It lives in the cups of flowers, after the flower-leaves have fallen off; and catches bees, and other flies, when they are in search of honey.
2. The avicularia, has a convex round breast, hollowed transversely in the middle. It is a native of America, and feeds upon small birds, insects, &c. The bite of this spider is as venomous as that of the serpent.
3. The ocellata, has three pair of eyes on its thighs. It is about the same size with the tarantula, of a pale colour, with a black ring round the belly, and two large black spots on the sides of the breast. It is a native of China.
4. The succata, has an oval belly of a dusky iron colour. It lives in the ground, and carries a sack with its eggs wherever it goes. This sack it glues to its belly, and will rather die than leave it behind.
5. The aquatica, is of a livid colour, with an oval belly, and a transverse line, and two hollowed points. It frequents the fresh waters of Europe. But it is in some fort amphibious: for it can live on the earth as well as in the water, and comes often to land for its food; yet it swims well in water, both on its belly and back: it is distinguishable by its brightness. In the water its belly appears covered with a silver varnish, which is only a bubble of air attached to its belly by means of the oily humours which transpire from its body, and prevent the immediate contact of the water. This bubble of air is made the substance of its dwelling, which it constructs under water: for it fixes several threads of silk, or such fine matter, to the stalks of plants in the water; and then ascending to the surface, thrusts the hinder part of its body above water, drawing it back again with such rapidity, that it attaches underneath a bubble of air, which it has the art of containing under water, by placing it underneath the threads above mentioned, and which it binds like a covering almost all round the air-bubble. Then it ascends again for another air-bubble; and thus proceeds until it has constructed a large aerial apartment under water, which it enters into or quits at pleasure. The male constructs for himself one near to the female; and when love invites, he breaks through the thread walls of the female's dwelling, and the two bubbles attached to the bellies of both unite into one, forming one large nuptial chamber. The female is sometimes laid for a whole day together stretched on her back, waiting for the arrival of the male, without motion, and seemingly as if dead. As soon as he enters and glides over her, she seems to be brought to life again, gets on her legs and runs after the male, who makes his escape with all possible speed: the female takes care of the young, and constructs similar apartments on purpose for them. The figure of this spider has nothing remarkable, and would be overlooked among a crowd of curiosities, if the spectator be unacquainted with its singular art of constructing an aerial habitation under water, and thus uniting together the properties of both elements.
6. The tarantula, Plate XXV. fig. 10. The breast (1) and belly (2) are of an ash-colour; the legs (3) are likewise ash-coloured, with blackish rings on the under part; the fangs, or nippers (4), are red on the inner side, the rest being blackish; (5) is the antennae or feelers: Two of its eyes are larger than the other, red, and placed in the front; four other eyes are placed in a transverse direction towards the mouth; the other two are nearer the back. It is a native of Italy, Cyprus, Barbary, and the East Indies. The breast and belly are about two inches long, terminated by two short tails. This figure was taken from the life, in the island of Cyprus, by Alex Drummond, Esq; late consul at Aleppo.
The bite of the tarantula is said to occasion an inflammation in the part, which in a few hours brings on sickness, difficulty of breathing, and universal faintness. The person afterwards is affected with a delirium, and sometimes is seized with a deep melancholy. The same symptoms return annually, in some cases, for several years; and at last terminate in death. Music, it has been pretended, is the only cure. A musician is brought, who tries a variety of airs, till at last he hits upon one that urges him to dance; the violence of which exercise produces a proportionable agitation of the vital spirits, attended with a consequent degree of perspiration, the certain consequence of which is a cure. Such are the circumstances that have been generally related, and long credited, concerning the bite of this animal. Kircherus, in his Musurgia, gives a very particular account of the symptoms and cure, illustrated by histories of cases. Among these, he mentions a girl, who, being bitten by this insect, could be cured only by the music of a drum. He then proceeds to relate that a certain Spaniard, trusting to the efficacy of music in the cure of the frenzy occasioned by the bite of the tarantula, submitted to be bitten on the hand by two of these creatures, of different colours, and possessed of different qualities. The venom was no sooner diffused about his body, than the symptoms of the disorder disorder began to appear; upon which harpers, pipers, and other musicians, were sent for, who by various kinds of music endeavoured to rouse him from that stupor into which he was fallen: but here it was observed that the bites of the two insects had produced contrary effects; for by one he was incited to dance, and by the other he was restrained therefrom; and in this conflict of nature the patient expired. The same account is given in his Phonurgia Nova, with the addition of a cut representing the insect in two positions, the patient in the action of dancing, together with the musical notes of the tune or air by which in one instance the cure was effected.
In his Musurgia, this author, attempting mechanically to account for the cure of the bite of the tarantula by music, says of the poison, That it is sharp, gnawing, and bilious; and that it is received and incorporated into the medullary substance of the fibres. With respect to the music, he says, That the sounds of chords have a power to rarify the air to a certain harmonical pitch; and that the air thus rarified, penetrating the pores of the patient's body, affects the muscles, arteries, and minute fibres, and incites him to dance, which exercise begets a perspiration, in which the poison evaporates.
Unsatisfactory as this theory appears, the belief of this strange phenomenon has prevailed among the ablest of modern physicians. Sir Thomas Brown, far from disputing it, says, That since many attest the fact from experience, and that the learned Kircherus hath positively averred it, and set down the songs and tunes formerly used for the cure of the disease, and since some also affirm that the tarantula itself will dance at the sound of music, he shall not at all question it.
Farther, that eminent Italian physician of the last century, Baglivi, a native of Apulia, the country where the tarantula is produced, has written a dissertation De anatomia, morbis, et effectibus tarantulae. In this he describes the region of Apulia where the tarantula is produced, with the anatomy and figure of the insect and its eggs, illustrated by an engraving; he mentions particularly the symptoms that follow from the bite, and the cure of the disease by music, with a variety of historic cures thus wrought, many of them communicated by persons who were eye-witnesses of the process.
Ludovicus Valetta, a Celestine monk of Apulia, published at Naples, in the year 1706, a treatise upon this spider, in which he not only answers the objections of those who deny the whole thing, but gives, from his own knowledge, several instances of persons who had suffered this way, some of whom were of great families, and so far from being dissemblers, that they would at any rate, to avoid shame, have concealed the misfortune which had befallen them.
The honourable Mr Robert Boyle, in his treatise of Languid and Unheeded Motions, speaking of the bite of the tarantula, and the cure of the disease which follows it by means of music, says, That, having himself had some doubts about the matter, he was, after strict inquiry, convinced that the relations in the main were true.
Lastly, Dr Mead, in his Mechanical Account of Poisons, has given an essay on the tarantula, containing the substance of the above relations, which he endeavours to confirm by his own reasoning thereon.
Notwithstanding the number and weight of these authorities, and the general acquiescence of learned and ingenious men in the opinion that the bite of the tarantula is poisonous, and that the cure of the disorder occasioned by it is effected by music, we have reason to apprehend that the whole is a mistake.
In the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1672, p. 406, is an extract of a letter from Dr Thomas Cornelio, a Neapolitan physician, to John Dodgington, Esq.; his majesty's resident at Venice, communicated by the latter, in which, speaking of his intention to send to Mr Dodgington some tarantulas, he says, "Mean while I shall not omit to impart to you what was related to me a few days since by a judicious and unprejudiced person; which is, that being in the country of Otranto, where those insects are in great numbers, there was a man who, thinking himself stung by a tarantula, showed in his neck a small speck, about which in a very short time there arose some pimples full of a serous humour; and that, in a few hours after, the poor man was sorely afflicted with very violent symptoms, as syncope, very great agitations, giddiness of the head, and vomiting; but that, without any inclination at all to dance, and without all desire of having any musical instruments, he miserably died within two days. The same person affirmed to me, that all those that think themselves bitten by tarantulas, except such as for evil ends feign themselves to be so, are for the most part young wanton girls, whom the Italian writers call Dolce di Sale; who, by some particular indisposition falling into this melancholy madness, persuade themselves, according to the vulgar prejudice, to have been stung by a tarantula."
Dr Serao, an Italian physician, as it seems, has written an ingenious book, in which he has effectually exploded this opinion as a popular error; and in the Philosophical Transactions, No LX. for the year 1770, p. 236, is a letter from Dominico Cirillo, M.D., professor of natural history in the university of Naples, wherein, taking notice of Serao's book, he says, That, having had an opportunity of examining the effects of this animal in the province of Taranto, where it is found in great abundance, he finds that the surprising cure of the bite of the tarantula by music has not the least truth in it; and that it is only an invention of the people, who want to get a little money by dancing when they say the tarantism begins. He adds, "I make no doubt but sometimes the heat of the climate contributes very much to warm their imaginations, and throw them into a delirium, which may be in some measure cured by music; but several experiments have been tried with the tarantula, and neither men nor animals after the bite have had any other complaint than a very trifling inflammation upon the part, like that produced by the bite of a scorpion, which goes off by itself without any danger at all. In Sicily, where the summer is still warmer than in any part of the kingdom of Naples, the tarantula is never dangerous; and music is never employed for the cure of the pretended tarantism."