72 A Natural Hi s t o r y
Have a refemblance o f chaps, or jaws, as is reprefented in the Plate by
E E, yet in other poftures thole dark llrokes dilappear ; and having
kept lèverai o f them in a box for two or three days, fo that for all that
time they had nothing to feed on, I found, upon letting one creep on
my hand, that it immediately fell to fucking, and did neither Jeem to
'thruft its nofe very deep into the skin, or open any kind o f mouth,
but I could plainly perceive a fmall current of blood, which came di-
reèlly from its fnout, and pall into its belly, and about A there feem’d
a contrivance, fomewhat refembling a pump, pair o f bellows, or heart,
for by a very fwift fyftolc and dtajlole the blood feem’d drawn from
the nofe, and forced into the body. It did not feem at all, though
I .viewed it a good while as it was lucking, to thruft more o f its nofe
into the skin than the veryfoout D, nor did it caufe the leaft difeernibfe
pain, and yet the blood feem’d to run through its head very quick and
.freely, fo that it feems there is no part o f the skin but the blood is di-
fpers’d into, nay, even into the cuticula ; for had it thruft its whole
nofe in from D to C C , it would not have amounted to the liippofed
ihicknels o f that tegument, the length o f the nofe being not more than'
a three-hundredth part o f an inch. It has fix legs, covered with a
very tranfparent {hell, aud jointed exadlly like a crab’s, or lobfter’s 5
each leg is divided into fix parts by thefe joints, and thofe have here
rand there lèverai Imall hairs ; and at the end o f each leg it has two
claws, very properly adapted for its peculiar ufe, being thereby inabled
'to walk very fecurely both on the skin and hair : and indeed this contrivance
o f the feet § very curious, and could not be made more com-
modioully and compend foully, for performing both'thefe requifite motions
; o f walking and climbing up the hair o f a man’s head, than it is $
io r by having the lelfer claw .( a ) fet fo much Ihort o f the bigger ( b )
when
Of S P I D E R S, &c. n-5
when it walks on the skin the Ihorter touches not, and then the feet are
the fame with thofe o f a mite, and feveral other Imall infecfts, but by
means o f the fmall joints o f the longer claw it can bend it round, and
lb with both claws take hold o f a hair, in the manner reprefented in
the Plate, the long tranfparent cylinder F F F, being a man’s hair held
by it.
T h e thorax feem’d cas’d with another kind o f fubftance than the
belly, namely, with a thin tranfparent horny fubftance, which upon
the falling o f the creature did not grow flaccid 5 through this I could
plainly fee the blood, flick’d from my hand, to be varioufly diftribut-
ed, and mov d to and fro ; and about G there feem’d a pretty big*
white fubftance, which feem’d to be moved within its thorax; befides *
there appear’d very many fmall milk-white velfels, which croft over
the breaft between the legs, out o f which, on either fide, were many
Imall branchings; thefe feem’d to be the veins and arteries; for that
which is analogus to blood in all infecis is milk-white.
T h e belly is covered with a tranfparent fubftance likewife, but more
refembling a skin than a Ihell, for ’tis grain’d all over the belly juft
like the skin in the palms o f a man’s hand, and when the belly is
empty, grows very flaccid and wrinkled; at the upper end o f this
is placed the ftomach H H, and perhaps alfo the white fpot I I may
be the liver or pancreas which by the periftaltick motion o f the ants,-
is a little mov’d to and fro, not with a fyftole and diaftole, but rather
with a thronging or juftling motion. Viewing one o f thefe creatures,
after it had failed two days, all the hinder part was lank and flaccid’
and the white fpot I I hardly mov’d, moll o f the white branchings
L dilappear’d