Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 003.djvu/36

 to his temper; that which is unsuitable, tormenting the party,

Some Tarantula's he affirms to have poison contrary to that of others, so that one man bitten by both such, cannot be made to dance; forasmuch as the one poison which induceth to dance, is made ineffectual by the contrariety of the other: It being also requisite, to use different Songs and Instruments, according to the different quality of the poyson, and the various Constitution of the Patient.

Further, he observes, that the Tune, which is suitable to the person bitten, is also suitable to the Tarantula it self, & é contra; as also, that not only men, but other Animals, as Cocks, Wasps, &c. bitten by the Spiders, do dance; and that the effects of the wound depend not on the life of the wounding Spider.

After this, our Author Philosophiseth thus. He esteems, that this poison invades chiefly the Arteries and Nerves, and the Spirits in the Nerves; as also the Brain and Fibres; and having cast the humours, raised in the whole Body, upon the Brain, disturbs the Imagination, according to the diversity both of Men's tempers, and of the Tarantula's.

The Feavers, Cachexy, Dancing, Sleep, Waking, various gestures, he giveth this account of; That since the Tarantula wounds by biting with a moist mouth in the hottest Season; thence by an opening made, the poison, consisting in a Salivous moisture, is out of the Spiders body conveyed into that of Man, whereby, upon its diffusion through the humane body, it affects the Muscles and Nerves principally, and in them, by the periodical heat, the spirits stirring up and increasing the heat in the Heart, and by too vehement heat corrupting the bile in the vessels, and so causing hot Feavers and Cachexy: And it may be also, that by that Salivous and venomous substance in the Mouth, the Pores are obstructed, and the passages shut, wherby an outlet being denyed to the heat, it is too much augmented in the body, and so likewise putrifies the bile, and causeth the same distempers.

Sometime this poison is joyned to the Spirits, and thereby causeth about the beginning of the Nerves another motion, than Nature, if not disturbed, would produce: whence, by vellicating the Muscles, it induces the party to dance. Or it ascends Rh