“Among the approved Remedies of Sir Matthew Lister, I find,” says Dr. James, “that the distilled water of black Spiders is an excellent cure for wounds, and that this was one of the choice secrets of Sir Walter Raleigh.... “The Spider is said to avert the paroxisms of fevers, if it be applied to the pulse of the wrist, or the temples; but it is peculiarly recommended against a quartan, being enclosed in the shell of a hazlenut.... “The Spider, which some call the catcher, or wolf, being beaten into a plaister, then sewed up in linen, and applied to the forehead and temples, prevents the return of the tertian.... There is another kind of Spider, which spins a white, fine, and thick web. One of this sort, wrapped in leather, and hung about the arm, will, it is said, avert the fit of a quartan. Boiled in oil of roses, and distilled into the ears, it eases (says Dioscorides, ii. 68) pains in those parts.... “The country people have a tradition, that a small quantity of Spiders’ web, given about an hour before the fit of an ague, and repeated immediately before it, is effectual in curing that troublesome, and sometimes obstinate distemper.... The Indians about North Carolina have great dependence on this remedy for ague, to which they are much subject.”[1227] “Of the cod or bags of Spiders, M. Bon caused a sort of drops to be made, in imitation of those of Goddard, because they contain a great quantity of volatile salt.”[1228] Moufet, in Theatrum Insectorum, has the following: “Also that knotty whip of God, and mock of all physicians, the Gowt, which learned men say can be cured by no remedy, findes help and cure by a Spider layed on, if it be taken at that time when neither sun nor moon shine, and the hinder legs pulled off, and put into a deer’s skin and bound to the pained foot, and be left on it for some time. Also for the most part we finde those people to be free from the gowt of hands or feet (which few medicaments can doe), in whose houses the Spiders breed much, and doth beautifie them with her tapestry and hangings.... Our chirurgeons cure warts thus: They wrap a Spider’s ordinary web into the fashion of a ball, and laying it on the wart, they set it on fire, and so let it burn to ashes; by this means the wart is rooted out by the roots, and will never grow again.... I cannot but repeat a history that I formerly heard from our dear friend worthy to be believed, Bruerus. A lustfull nephew of his, having spent his estate in rioting and brothel-houses, being ready to undertake anything for money, to the hazzard of his life; when he heard of a rich matron of London, that was troubled with a timpany, and was forsaken of all physicians as past cure, he counterfeited himself to be a physician in practice, giving forth that he would cure her and all diseases. But as the custom is, he must have half in hand, and the other half under her hand, to be payed when she was cured. Then