ps, and
the light shines out at an elevation of one hundred and ten feet above
high-water mark, and is visible at a distance of eighteen miles.

INSECT WAYS AND MEANS.

II.--SOME WEAPONS OF OFFENCE.

The sting of the bee and the lancet of the gnat, although fashioned of
very different materials, bear a close likeness in their mechanism. In
each case the piercing organ is, in the first place, a gouge-like weapon
which prepares the way for more delicate lancets. But in the spider we
find a very different piece of machinery for the injection of the
poison. It is formed by a pair of peculiarly modified legs which act as
jaws, and are armed each with a powerful claw, at the tip of which, as
in the poison-fang of the viper, is a small hole. Out of this hole a
drop of poison oozes when the prey is seized, and this has the effect of
paralysing the victim. The poison is formed in a curious bag, or 'gland'
(G.L), which communicates with the claw by means of a long tube or duct.

Many people feel a remarkable repugnance or even dread for spiders.
This, in many cases at least, is due to the supposed venom in their
bite. Yet, except the famous 'Tarantula,' no spiders really inflict a
painful wound. Tales of fearsome black spiders are common enough. One of
the spiders known as 'line weavers' is reputed to have a very poisonous
bite. To test the truth of this, one authority on spiders repeatedly
allowed himself to be bitten, yet suffered no inconvenience! In the
early and barbarous days of medical practice, a spider was frequently
applied to the wrists of patients suffering from fever.

Even the virulence of the dreaded Tarantula's bite has been greatly
exaggerated. It was supposed to cause the disease known as Tarantism:
the victim was seized with a mad desire to dance. The mania, while it
lasted, was accompanied with leaping, contortions, gesticulations, and
wild cries, until finally the fit of hysteria, for such it was, wore
itself out. The methods of treatment were many and curious. One of the
most favoured was to bury the patient up to the neck! But the dulcet
strains of music were believed to be the most powerful of all cures, and
certain peculiar tunes came to be regarded as especially effective, and
hence became known as Tarantella!

Parts of India now desert are said to have been deprived of their
inhabitants through the dread caused by certain huge spiders known as
the Galeodes. Their bite is without doubt extr