decency as Swift and Zola have outraged them.  But without handling doubtful subjects, there are many curious medical experiences which have interest for every one as extreme illustrations of ordinary conditions with which all are acquainted.  No one can study the now familiar history of clairvoyance profitably who has not learned something of the vagaries of hysteria.  No one can read understandingly the life of Cowper and that of Carlyle without having some idea of the influence of hypochondriasis and of dyspepsia 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 the account given by the physician to whom the peasant carried the great spider.