The representative., 1901-06-13
SPIDER BITES
NOT SO BAD
TARANTULAs AND CENTIPEDEs. TOO
HAVE BEEN GROSSLY LIBELED.
Only One Species Of Spider In United
States Has an Authentic Death
List, and That . Brief One.

10 very generally overestimated In the pop
ular mind. Everywhere there exists delu-
saons regarding perfectly harmless insects
For example, the common dragon flies, or
devils. darning needles. are feared very
generally by English speaking races, and
the children In this country think that
these harmless insects will sew up their
ears. The common tomato worm, or tobacco
worm, perfectly harmless insect. IL con-
sidered to be fatally poisonous by many
people.
Much of the common superstition about
spider bites IL toally unfounded, while the
stories about scorpions and centipedes are
grossly exaggerated. The effects of intense
nervous fear following q physical injury of
An insignincant nature are well understood
by the medical profession. Hence 1t Is not
dimcult to understand cases Of severe ner-
vous prostration and even death following
. sting or . bite rom q comparatively
harmless insect. Nervous breads are con-
tagious. and psychologists will admit that
the tarentism, of tarentella frenzy Of South
Europe. ascribed to the bite of the taran-
tula, which has been repeated at long in
tervals within the past few centuries, was
largely a dread, or panic epidemic. Ento-
Inologists know that there is nothing in the
poison of the tarantula to produce the
symptoms described, such as the prolonged
dances ending in coma.
The truly poisonous insects-that is, in
eects which possess poison glands and Sc
crete poison with their bites or slings be-
long In the main to two classes. Either
they sting for protection, as with the bees,
certain ants and certain wasps, or they use
the poison to assist in the capture of their
prey. as with the digger wasps, certain
predaceous bugs and all spiders. The mos
hal IN h vi ole md thn
pose Of the poison which it injects is not
fully understood.
Insect poisons, as a rule, we're undoubted-
ly developed for use against other insects.
Therefore they are small in quantity and,
generally speaking are serious In their ef-
: fects only upon other insects.
Cases are on record of the death of hu-
man beings as a result of the injection of
poison with the stings of bees and wasps,
as well as with the bites of spiders. Such
cases, however, are rare. number Of
cases are on record of death from a multi
-tude of bee stings. 1 know of one case we'll
authenticated, Of the death Of a middle
aged woman from single bee sting. The
physical condition of the patient undoub-
edly had much to do with the fatal result,
which was probably due partly to nervous
shock and possibly to the fact that the
poison was injected directly into a large
vein and was thus carried Immediately to
the heart
Another case Of similar nature CAME sln-
der the observation of DR.. William Frew,
of England, in 1896. The patient, a young
lady Of % years of age, was stung on the
neck, Just behind the angle of the Jaw, by
wasp. She complained Immediately Of a
horrible feeling Of choking and Of agonizing
pains In the abdomen became insensible
and breathed her last IL minutes after the
sting. The young lady was of nervous,
excitable temperament, and had shown
symptoms Of weak action Of the heart. From
both father and mother she had inherited
gouty tendencies and the mother was re-
markably susceptible to the action Of GER
tain medicines.
different effects on different people, and
without doubt persons who habitually
handle bees become immune to their pois-
ons. That this immunity is produced by
inoculation cannot be doubted, but there
must be an almost continuous reinoculation.
1t is a curious fact that some portions OF
the body may become immune and others
not. Herbert H. Smith, who Is q profes:
sional collector Of insects, catches bees and
wasps in his net and removes them with
his thumb and forehnger. In his case, the
forefnger is stung SO often that 1t has be-
come thoroughly inoculated and stings upon
his finger produce no effect, but II he IL
stung on the back of the neck, or in some
other part of the body the sensation is as
painful as 1t Is with another person.
Authentic cases of death from spider bite
are rare, although cases reported in the
newspapers are of almost weekly occur
renee. have investigated more than a
hundred such reports in the United States
in the past 10 years. In many cases the
reported facts were entirely erroneous; in
TIE majority OF cases no spider was seen
to inflict the bite; there were almost no
in whf tho IN 20
and was saved for examination. Some
years ago baby sleeping in cradle In a
Connecticut town was bitten upon the lip
by spider known as Latrodectus mactans
and died as a result Of. the bite. laboring
man In South Carolina, In the early '90's
died, either az q result from the bite Of a
spider Of the same species or as a result Of
the large doses Of whisky which were given
to him as q remedy The latter explana-
tion is the more probable one.
This Latrodectus is not one of our large
spiders. 1t is glistening black in color and
little larger than large pea. 1t Is usu-
ally marked on the under side with red
spot. 1t is the most dangerous spider which
occurs in the United States. but its fangs
are so weak that it cannot penetrate the
skin In parts Of the body that are ordinarily
exposed. II by chance, however, 1t bites a
particularly sensitive, thin skinned portion
Of the body which is especially we'll provided
with blood vessels the results are likely to
be painful and serious This spider occurs
under old logs and rubbish. and is occa-
sionally found in outhouses. 1t Is rather
common In the Southwest, and extends in
small numbers northeastward to New Eng
land.
have been unable to authenticate sin
gle instance Of death from the bite Of the
large spiders known as tarantulas, although
circumstantially reported cases are frequent
In the newspapers. These stories usually
tell how the tarantulas have heen import ed
with bananas or other tropical fruit.
Many Of the true bugs give severe pune
lures with their beaks. Some of them in
sert slight amount Of poison, but the in
nammatory effects which occasionally fol-
low the bite of most of them are due to the
fact that their beaks have previously been
inserted into some decaying animal matter
30 that the germs of putrefaction are thus
carried into the human blood. This is the
explanation of the comparatively few au-
thentic cases of severe swelling following
the bite OF the so-called kissing bugs -
Tne large aquatic bug which of recent years
mas become known as the electric light"
Dug has sharp beak and may inflict q Sc
we're wound when incautiously handled
serious results, however, are not known to
follow. The large, ungainly, predaceous bug
known as the wheel bug" may give a Sc
we're wound under similar conditions.
There is little group of caterpillars
armed with sharp hairs which will pierce
the SKIN and produce sometimes an intense
oy the nettle. The commonest of these
caterpi!lars are the so-called saddle-back
caterpiliars and the caterpillar of the 10
or corn emperor" moth. The irritation
produced by these creatures is sometimes
as severe as the severest cases of poisoning
young woman swollen to twice its normal
size, causing great pain in consequence of