Louie of they
African Hen
O f SPIDERS, &c. 67
to know more concerning the nature, o f this ftrange infed, the effeds
o f its venom, and the Caufes o f thole furprifing fymptoms attending it,
I refer to Dr. Meads mechanical account o f poilbns, from whence
(with the author’s leave) 1 have extracted this account o f the Tarantula.
Of the Scorpion, By the fame learned
Author.
F Hinging animals the Scorpion is the chief, whole virus in
different countries is more or lels dangerous, according as ’tis
exalted by various degrees o f heat; thus in A frica , particularly
, its effects are fo dreadful, that as Leo tells us, the town Pefcaray
there, is in a manner left delolate by the inhabitants in the lummer, by
reafon o f the great abundance o f thefe creatures, certain death following
their fting.
S om e o f this deadly kind, exhibited in Plate X L , Seignior R edi,
had lent him from Tunis 5 and it being November, irritated them to
fting pigeons, pullets, & c . without any bad effed at all o f their poifon,
but upon the approaching fpring, one o f them which had been kept all
the winter, nay, eight months, without any food, and the wound o f
whole fting before was harmlels, ftung to death two pigeons fuccef-
liv e ly ; but a third and fourth wounded in like manner, luffer’d no hurt.
Yet having let the Scorpion reft all night, he killed another pigeon the
next morning.
K 2 A t