. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . efhere, and also byother natives, thatmany fatal cases among their ranks have takenplace by the bite of the katipo ; they also be-lieve the sufferer is sure to die if they cannotfind the spider ; Init, on tlie contrary, if they findit and burn it in tlie fire, the patient gets well inthree days. If they cannot find the insect, theyset fire to the house and burn buildings, effects,and everjthing else. In this case the spider wasfound, an
. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . efhere, and also byother natives, thatmany fatal cases among their ranks have takenplace by the bite of the katipo ; they also be-lieve the sufferer is sure to die if they cannotfind the spider ; Init, on tlie contrary, if they findit and burn it in tlie fire, the patient gets well inthree days. If they cannot find the insect, theyset fire to the house and burn buildings, effects,and everjthing else. In this case the spider wasfound, and Dr. Mohnbeer has it pre-„ . served in spirits in his surgery. I write this to caution persons to lookwell to their bedclothes before retiring to rest,as I have witnessed persons suffering from thebite of snakes and other reptiles in Australia,but never saw any one in such agony as my sonduring the time the was taking effect. Notwithstanding this very clear and appar-ently trustworthy account and the exampleswhich follow, M. Lucas, a well known natural-ist, gives a testimony which is exactly the re-verse concerning the venomous effects of the. Fig. 251. Latrodectus mactans, natural size. For this cut and the two next following I am indebted to the courtesy of the Secre-tary of the United States Department of Agriculture. EFFECTS AND USES OF SPIDER POISON. 275 very same spider. He states that he had studied the habits of Latrodec-tus in Algeria, where it is frequently found, and that he never observed that its bite was venomous, although he himself had been bittenDenies several times without any bad effect, i Can it be that the very state of mind in which the naturalist approaches the inquiryneutralizes the poison by nullifying the effects of an excited imagination ?In the entomological journal known as Insect Life, issued by theUnited States Department of Agriculture, ^ there is an excellent articlegiving the evidence for and against the possibility of a f
Size: 1068px × 2340px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidamericanspid, bookyear1889
