epsia upon the
disposition and intellect of the subjects of these maladies. I need
not apologize, therefore, for giving publicity to that part of this
narrative which deals with one of the most singular maladies to be found
in the records of bodily and mental infirmities.

The following is the account of the case as translated by Miss Vincent.
For obvious reasons the whole name was not given in the original paper,
and for similar reasons the date of the event and the birthplace of the
patient are not precisely indicated here.

[Giornale degli Ospitali, Luglio 21, 18-.] REMARKABLE CASE OF TARANTISM.

"The great interest attaching to the very singular and exceptional
instance of this rare affection induces us to give a full account of the
extraordinary example of its occurrence in a patient who was the subject
of a recent medical consultation in this city.

"Signorino M... Ch... is the only son of a gentleman travelling in
Italy at this time. He is eleven years of age, of sanguine-nervous
temperament, light hair, blue eyes, intelligent countenance, well grown,
but rather slight in form, to all appearance in good health, but subject
to certain peculiar and anomalous nervous symptoms, of which his father
gives this history.

"Nine years ago, the father informs us, he was travelling in Italy with
his wife, this child, and a nurse. They were passing a few days in a
country village near the city of Bari, capital of the province of the
same name in the division (compartamento) of Apulia. The child was in
perfect health and had never been affected by any serious illness. On
the 10th of July he was playing out in the field near the house
where the family was staying when he was heard to scream suddenly and
violently. The nurse rushing to him found him in great pain, saying that
something had bitten him in one of his feet. A laborer, one Tommaso,
ran up at the moment and perceived in the grass, near where the boy
was standing, an enormous spider, which he at once recognized as a
tarantula. He managed to catch the creature in a large leaf, from which
he was afterwards transferred to a wide-mouthed bottle, where he lived
without any food for a month or more. The creature was covered with
short hairs, and had a pair of nipper-like jaws, with which he could
inflict an ugly wound. His body measured about an inch in length, and
from the extremity of one of the longest limbs to the other was between
two and three inches. Such was th