A nervous disorder that had arrived at so high a
degree of development must have been long in existence, and
doubtless had required an elaborate preparation by the concurrence
of general causes.
The symptoms which followed the bite of venomous spiders were well
known to the ancients, and had excited the attention of their best
observers, who agree in their descriptions of them. It is
probable that among the numerous species of their phalangium, the
Apulian tarantula is included, but it is difficult to determine
this point with certainty, more especially because in Italy the
tarantula was not the only insect which caused this nervous
affection, similar results being likewise attributed to the bite
of the scorpion. Lividity of the whole body, as well as of the
countenance, difficulty of speech, tremor of the limbs, icy
coldness, pale urine, depression of spirits, headache, a flow of
tears, nausea, vomiting, sexual excitement, flatulence, syncope,
dysuria, watchfulness, lethargy, even death itself, were cited by
them as the consequences of being bitten by venomous spiders, and
they made little distinction as to their kinds. To these symptoms
we may add the strange rumour, repeated throughout the middle
ages, that persons who were bitten, ejected by the bowels and
kidneys, and even by vomiting, substances resembling a spider's
web.
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