Reginald Innes Pocock

“ From this the sufferer could only be roused by music, which excited an overpowering desire to dance until the performer fell to the ground bathed in profuse perspiration, when the cure, at all events for the time, was supposed to be effected. This mania attacked both men and women, young and old alike, women being more susceptible than men. ”

“ The male is approximately the same size as the female, but in neither sex does the length of the body surpass three-quarters of an inch. Like all spiders, the tarantula possesses poison glands in its jaws, but there is not a particle of trustworthy evidence that the secretion of these glands is more virulent than that of other spiders of the same size, and the medieval belief that the bite of the spider gave rise to tarantism has long been abandoned. ”

“ This spider belongs to the family Lycosidae, and has numerous allies, equalling or surpassing it in size, in various parts of the world, the genus Lycosa being almost cosmopolitan in distribution. The tarantula, like all its allies, spins no web as a snare but catches its prey by activity and speed of foot. It lives on dry, well-drained ground, and digs a deep burrow lined with silk to prevent the infall of loose particles of soil. ”