1. A Case of Extra-uterine Fatus, with some Observa- tions on the Subject generally. By David Ramsay, II. Memoir on Galvanic Electricity, and on the Elec- for Medical Purposes. By M. le Baron de Caren- III. Additional Evidence in Support of the Utility of oc- casional Blood-letting in the Pregnant State. By John Vaughan, M.D. of Wilmington (Del.) IV. On the spoiling of Beef, Pork and Butter, when packed with Liverpool Salt, and on the Fevers produced in American Ships and Cities by the Corruption of Animal Flesh cured with that Kind of Salt. By Samuel L. Mitchill, M. D. Representative in Con- gress for the City of New-York, &c. V. Essay on the Contagiousness and Importation of VI. Further Observations on the Nature of Fever, and on the Importance of Remedies applied to the Skin. VII. Remarkable Symptoms consequent upon an Injury done to the Spine. By Jonathan Dorr, Esq. of Cam- Reviews of Ellicott's Journal, and Remarks on the Coun- tries near the Ohio, Mississippi, and Gulf of Mexico, p. 262; of Ingalls' Dissertation on Bursal Abscess, p. 270; of Peale's Epistle on the Means of preserving Health, p. 273; of Barnewell's Deductions from Medical and Sur- gical Facts, p. 280; and of Graves's Pocket Conspectus of the London and Edinburgh Pharmacopeias, p. 284. Thirty-four Articles of Geographical, Mineralogical, Che mical and Physical Information, from p. 285 to 315. Appendix, Webster's Address to the Citizens of the United II. Observations on the Weather and Diseases at Lon- donderry in the Year 1800. By William Patterson, III. Correction of Dr. Chisholm's Mistatement respect- ing the Prevalence of the Malignant Fever at St. IV. Account of Hemorrhoids cured by Compression and Dilatation of the Anus. By, of Maryland 339 V. History of remarkable Intestinal Worms. By Felix Pascalis, M. D. of Philadelphia VI. Account of the Measles, as it appeared in Berwick, York County, in the District of Maine, in 1802 and 1803. By Dr. Richard Hazeltine, of Berwick VII. An Inquiry into the Cause of the premature De- cay of Human Teeth in America. By Dr. Malachi VIII. An Attempt to deduce a Nomenclature of certain Febrile and Pestilential Diseases from the Origin and Reviews of Miller's Brief Retrospect of the 18th Century, p. 373; of the Official Account of Louisiana, p. 390; of Anderson and Waite's Edition of the General History Twenty-five Articles of Intelligence, in Geography, Natural History, Geology, and other Branches of Physics, &c. Obituary, containing Sketches of the late Dr. Priestley, from FOR MAY, JUNE AND JULY, 1803. ARTICLE I. A CASE of very singular NERVOUS AFFECTIONS, supposed to have been occasioned by the BITE of a TARANTULA.* By Dr. JOSEPH COMSTOCK, of South-Kingston (R. I.) Addressed to Dr. A. C. WILLEY, of Block-Island, in a Letter dated January 24, 1803. N the month of December, 1801, Nancy Hazard, aged 15 years, whose parents lived in North-Kingston, was on a visit upon the Island of Conanicut.+ The weather in that month being remarkably warm, she went, in company with another young woman, to a stack, to procure some oat-straw to make some female attire for the head. While stooping down and culling the straws which lay on the ground, a large black spider, which she said she observed had very shining black eyes, ran on the back part of her hand, and, without her attempting to molest him, having heard, as she said, that it was good luck, soon ran off. She said it gave her a slight The Tarantula is the Aranea Tarantula of Linnæus, and not a Phalangium, which is quite a different genus. George Baglivi has composed an express treatise on the history, anatomy, bite and effects of the taran tula. It was published at Rome in 1695, and may be now found in the volume which contains his collected writings. This celebrated Italian testifies that the bites of the phalangiums and scorpions of Apulia bring on symptoms like those consequent upon the venom of the spider, and require to be mitigated in like manner by music and dancing. After a perusal of Baglivi's dissertation, the evidence he adduces seems so weak and inconclusive, that the disease would rather appear to be a species of hysteria, melancholia, or hypochondriasis, or some analogous affections, especially as the greater part of the patients are females. Mulieres tamen quarum inter tarantatos pars magna est, morbum hunc frequentissimè simulant per symptomata eiders familiaria, &c. (Baglivi Dissertat. cap. vii.) But even supposing this case to be mere hysteria, we think it sufficiently important and singular to deserve publication. An island in Narraganset Bay, near Rhode-Island. EDIT. sensation, whilst on the back of her hand, like the prick of pin, upon a particular part which she pointed out. The same afternoon she felt the hand and arm of that side to twitch involuntarily several times, and that night was taken with a pain in the same, which shifted into her stomach, and increased till the morning of the third day afterwards, when she went into fits. If I recollect, she puked several times upon the second and third days. A physician was called; but she not having mentioned the spider, and her complaints resembling hysteria, were treated as such by him. This information I received from her and the family. The medicines which he gave, they did not know; she was bled, however. She not growing any better, Dr. Perry, then my co-partner in medical business, was called. From him I learned that in her case he discovered something very peculiar, and was led to consider it a case sui generis. He observed that her fits resembled, in some measure, hysteria, but more nearly hysteric paroxysms combined with the St. Vitus's dance. After premising a gentle cathartic, he gave her the tinct. castor, spt. C. C. and an opiate at night. By these it was thought some relief was afforded; but the fits returned the next day, and were very obstinate and distressing. Being at the distance of twelve miles from her, he did not visit her again till five or six days afterwards. Her situation was not essentially altered: the fits continued to afflict her the greater or less part of every day. They were not accompanied with fever. To the former remedies he joined the oleum succini, with orders to increase the dose of the opiate. The Doctor, after this visit, first mentioned to me an extraordinary increase of sensibility, which he observed in her feeling, and which constituted, afterwards, a prominent and very striking feature in her complaint. There had no mention been made by her, as yet, respecting the spider; but that she had an inclination for music. was judged by her movements with her hands and fingers, when in her fits, as if after a tune; and when music was introduced her motions corresponded; she beating with her hands and finger ends upon her breast, in imitation of dancing. And sometimes, when, from the violence of the spasms, she could not regulate her motions, and would strike too hard, it was common for some of the attendants to place their hand upon that part of the thorax where the ends of her fingers struck, to prevent the harm. She appeared best pleased when her father's hand was placed for this purpose; and if another person ever so gently endeavoured to displace his hand, and put his own in its place, she would immediately push away the strange hand, and seek for her father's! This she did, although to every thing else insensible, and with her eyes closed. This was not done by taking the different hands into her own, and discriminating them by their magnitude, softness or hardness; for this the violence of the spasm, with which she was universally affected, rendered her incapable of doing; but simply by touching with her finger ends, as the Doctor experienced in himself. The violence and long continuance of the paroxysms having induced debility, some tonic remedies were added to the above; after which she was removed home, appearing somewhat better, or having only, perhaps, a longer interval of ease. The disorder, however, soon returned with increased violence; and the medicines, after repeated trials, and increased doses, not appearing to have any effect, were at length discontinued, from a conviction of both physicians and friends that they were of no utility. Music now became the substitute for medicine, and was absolutely necessary, it being the only thing which moderated the violent and distressing spasms with which she was the greatest part of the time afflicted. It was the fortieth day of her illness when I first visited her. When I went into the room she was sitting in a chair, leaning her head upon one of her friends, and following, with motions of her hands, a tune sung by some young woman who appeared to attend for that purpose. The tune she followed with the greatest regularity and exactness. If it changed for an air more quick or slow, her motions exactly corresponded; if it stopped, her motion immediately ceased. Yet to all other sounds did she appear as insensible as matter inanimate. Her muscles were continually affected with spasm during the paroxysms. Before the music began, or, if it ceased, the spasms were very violent and excruciating, affecting her muscles with convulsive motions. When the music coinmenced, it in a very great degree relaxed the spasmodic tension, and the convulsive motions were changed for the motion of her hands in following the tune. The tension remained, however, in her fingers, which, all the time of the fit, were |