Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/356

 MARK TWAIN

passes on to a consideration of the Effects and Cure of the Poison.&quot;

One of the most interesting things about this tragedy is the double sex of the Toad, and also of the Spider.

Now the sage quotes from one Turner:

I remember, when a very young Practitioner, being sent for to a certain Woman, whose Custom was usually, when she went to the Cellar by Candlelight, to go also a Spider-hunting, setting Fire to their Webs, and burning them with the Flame of the Candle still as she pursued them. It happen d at length, after this Whimsy had been follow d a long time, one of them sold his Life much dearer than those Hundreds she had destroy d; for, lighting upon the melting Tallow of her Candle, near the Flame, and his legs being entangled therein, so that he could not extricate himself, the Flame or Heat coming on, he was made a Sacrifice to his cruel Persecutor, who delighting her Eyes with the Spectacle, still waiting for the Flame to take hold of him, he presently burst with a great Crack, and threw his Liquor, some into her Eyes, but mostly upon her Lips; by means of which, flinging away her Candle, she cry d out for Help, as fansying herself kill d already with the Poison. However in the Night her Lips swell d up excessively, and one of her Eyes was much inflam d; also her Tongue and Gums were somewhat affected; and, whether from the Nausea excited by the Thoughts of the Liquor getting into her Mouth, or from the poisonous Impressions communicated by the nervous Fibrillcz of those Parts to those of the Ventricle, a continual Vomiting attended: To take off which, when I was call d, I order d a Glass of mull d Sack, with a Scruple of Salt of Wormwood, and some hours after a Theriacal Bolus, which she flung up again. I embro cated the Lips with the Oil of Scorpions mix d with the Oil of Roses; and, in Consideration of the Ophthalmy, tho I was not certain but the Heat of the Liquor, rais d by the Flame of the Candle before the Body of the Creature burst, might, as well as the Venom, excite the Disturbance, (altho Mr. Boyle 9 s Case of a Person blinded by this Liquor dropping from the living Spider, makes the latter sufficient;) yet observing the great Tumefaction

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