. Handbook of medical entomology. Insect pests; Insects as carriers of disease; Medical parasitology. 12 Poisonous Arthropods "The tarantulas, no matter how often they were placed on the skin, handled, and irritated, could not be induced to bite either myself, the janitor, or the ordinary experimental animals. The objection that the tarantulas were weak and indifferent cannot stand, for as soon as I placed two of them on the shaved skin of a rabbit, instead of an attack on the animal, there began a furious battle between the two spiders, which did not cease untU one of the two was killed.
. Handbook of medical entomology. Insect pests; Insects as carriers of disease; Medical parasitology. 12 Poisonous Arthropods "The tarantulas, no matter how often they were placed on the skin, handled, and irritated, could not be induced to bite either myself, the janitor, or the ordinary experimental animals. The objection that the tarantulas were weak and indifferent cannot stand, for as soon as I placed two of them on the shaved skin of a rabbit, instead of an attack on the animal, there began a furious battle between the two spiders, which did not cease untU one of the two was ; "Since the spiders would not bite, I carefuUy ground up the fresh animals in physiological salt solution, preparing an extract which must have contained, in solution, all of the poisonous substance of their bodies. While in the case of Latrodectus, as we shall see, less than one specimen sufficed to yield an active extract, I have injected the filtered extract of six fresh Russian tarantulas, of which each one was much heavier than an average Latro- dectus, subcutaneously and into the jugular vein of various cats without the animals dying or showing any special S3Tiiptoms. On the basis of my experiments I can therefore only say that the quantity of the poison soluble in physiological salt solution, even when the spiders are perfectly fresh and well nourished, is very insignificant. That the poison of the Russian taranttda is not soluble in physiological salt solution, is exceedingly improbable. Moreover, I have prepared alcoholic extracts and was unable to find them active. Since the Russian spider exceeds the Italian in size and in intensity of the bite, it seems very improbable to me that the pharmacological test of the Italian taranttila would yield essentially other results than those from the Russian ; To the Avicularoidea belong the largest and most formidable appearing of the spiders and it is not strange that in the New World they have fallen he
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