(29) _Dissert. de Tarantula Histor._ 5 (30) _Pag. 88._ (31) _Lib. 30. c. 13._ (32) _De Abstinent. ab animal._ lib. 1. p. m. 16. (33) _De simpl. Medit. Facult._ lib. 11. c. 1. (34) _Curat. Diuturn._ lib. 2. c. 13. (35) _Vid. Purchas._ Pilgrims, Part 2. l. 7. c. 9. (36) Voyages, _Vol. 2. Part 1. p. 53._ (37) _De Theriac. ad Pison._ Cap. 12. (38) _Philos. Transact._ N^o. 271. (39) _Nat. Hist._ lib. 5. cap. 10. (40) _Vid._ _Fig. 18._ (41) _Hist. Ind._ p. m. 56. (42) _Vid._ _Fig. 17._ (43) _Histor. Afric._ lib. 6. (44) _Hist. Insect._ p. 147. (45) _Generazione degli Inserti_, p. 15. (46) _Micrograph. Observ._ 34. (47) _Ibid. Obs._ 25. ESSAY II. OF THE BITE OF THE _TARANTULA_ AND MAD DOG. I Join these Two _Poisons_ together, because tho’ they differ very much in their Effects, yet both do agree in this, that they induce a particular _Delirium sui generis_, attended partly with _Maniacal_, partly with _Melancholy_ Symptoms. The _Tarantula_ (of which the Figure may be seen in _Baglivi_’s Dissertation (48),) is a _Spider_ of _Apulia_ of the _Octonocular_ kind; that is of that _Species_ that has eight Eyes, and spins Webbs; it has eight Legs, four on each side, and in each Leg three Joints; from the Mouth proceed two Darts, in Shape just like to a hooked _Forceps_, or Crab’s Claws; these are solid, and very sharp, so that they can easily pierce the Skin; and between these and the Fore-Legs there are two little Horns, which I suppose do answer to those Bodies call’d from their Use in _Flies_ the _Feelers_; because as they do, so this Creature is observed to move ’em very briskly when it approaches to its Prey. This, as other Spiders do, propagates its _Species_ by laying Eggs, which are very numerous; so that there are found sometimes in the Female, when dissected, a hundred or more; and these are hatched partly by the Heat of the Mother, partly by that of the Sun, in about twenty or thirty Days Time. There is also a Spider of the like Nature with the _Tarantula_ in the _West-Indies_, which _Fr. Hernandez_ (49) describes by the Name of _Hoitztocatl_, or the _Pricking Spider_; and says, that its Bite induces Madness. In the Summer Months, especially when the Heats are greatest, as in the Dog-Days, the _Tarantula_ creeping among the Corn in the Fields, bites the Mowers and Passengers; in the Winter it lurks in Holes, and is scarcely seen; and if it does bite then, it is not venomous, neither does it induce any ill Symptoms.