stories are reported concerning its virulence. The part which is bitten, as we are told, is soon after discoloured with a livid black, or yellowish circle, attended with an inflammation. At first the pain is scarcely felt; but a few hours after come on a violent sickness, difficulty of breathing, fainting, and sometimes trembling. The person bit, after this, does nothing but laugh, dance and skip about, putting himself into the most extravagant postures; and sometimes also is seized with a most frightful melancholy. At the return of the season in which he was bit, his madness begins again; and the patient always talks of the same things. Sometimes he fancies himself a shepherd; sometimes a king; appearing entirely out of his senses. These troublesome symptoms sometimes return for several years successively, and at last terminate in death. But so dreadful a disorder has, it seems, not been left without a remedy; which is no other than a well-played fiddle. For this purpose the medical musician plays a particular tune, famous for the cure, which he begins slow, and increases in quickness as he sees the patient affected. The patient no sooner hears the music, but he begins to dance; and continues so doing till he is all over in a sweat, which forces out the venom that appeared so dangerous. This dancing sometimes continues for three or four hours, before the patient is weary, and before the sweating is copious enough to cure the disorder. Such are the symptoms related of the tarantula poison; symptoms which some of the best and gravest physicians have credited, and attempted to account for. But the truth is, that the whole is an imposition of the peasants upon travel lers who happen to pass through that part of the country, and who procure a trifle for suffering themselves to be bitten by the tarantula. Whenever they find a traveller willing to try the experiment, they readily offer themselves; and are sure to counterfeit the whole train of symptoms which music is supposed to remove. A friend of mine who passed through that part of the country, had a trusty scrvant bitten, without ever administering the musical cure: the other symptoms were a slight inflammation, which was readily removed, and no other consequence ever attended the bite. -It is thus that falsehoods prevail for a century or two; and mankind at last begin to wonder how it was possible to keep up the delusion so long. vast swarms. A [The Gossamere spider is a very minute animal, found' during the harvest in fields and gardens in Its body is so light that it floats in the air to a great height, and deposits a thick coat of cobweb called gossamere, and which in the autumn is seen to cover whole fields to a great extent. This film is frequently observed in a fine clear morning, glittering with drops of dew, and exhibiting one of the most pleasing sights in rural scenery.] CHAP. IV. Of the Flea. THE history of those animals with which we are the best acquainted, are the first objects of our chiefest curiosity. There are few but are well informed of the agility and the blood-thirsty disposition of the Flea; of the caution with which it 'comes to the attack; and the readiness with which it avoids the pursuit. This insect, which is not only the enemy of mankind, but of the dog, cat, and several other animals, is found in every part of the world, but bites with greater severity in some countries than in others. Its numbers in Italy and France are much greater than in England; and yet its bite is much more troublesome here, than I have found it in any other place. It would seem that its force increased with the coldness of the climate; and though less prolific, that it becomes more predaceous. If the flea be examined by a microscope, it will be observed to have a small head, large eyes, and a roundish body. It has two feelers, or horns, which are short, and composed of four joints; and between these lies its trunk, which it buries in the skin, and through which it sucks the blood in large quantities. The body appears to be all over curiously adorned with a suit of polished sable armour, neatly jointed, and beset with multi |