Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/693

Rh effects—a silent melancholy, and convulsive movements, which can only be cured by music, while a certain tune is needful in each particular case. No doubt an epidemic nervous disease spread among persons of both sexes in this community, but it was a kind of contagious hysteria, that had nothing to do with the tarantula. That



this malady was cured by music, and consequent dancing, is very probable. The patient having indulged in long and continuous exercise, producing violent perspiration, became exhausted, fell asleep, and awoke cured.

The legs of the spider are admirably adapted to its peculiar mode



of life. Fig. 5 represents the under surface of its body. Its eight legs are disposed in an oval upon the cephalothorax, and are long and slender, each having seven joints. They are suited for firmly grasping