P H A
blunt inftruments ufed in furgery ; fuch as probes and others, with buttons at the ends.
PHALACROCEPHALUS indicus, in zoology, the name of an anadromous fi(h of the Eaftlndies. Its neck and head appear naked and bald, as it were It is all over of a greyilh white in colour, and is variegated with red fpots about the mouth. The eyes are large and very prominent, and their irifcs yellow. Its ufual fize is about a foot and a half in length, and it lives part of its time in the fea, and part in rivers. It is an extremely delicate-tailed fifh, and efteemed one of the fineft of that part of the world . It is called by the Dutch kael k>!p. Ray's Ichthycgr. Append p. 2.
PHALAIA, a word invented by Bafii Valentine, and ufed as the name of a fanacxa, or univerfal medicine ; but Rolfink has fince ufed it to exprefs a tinflure of jalap.
PHAL'iNGlUM, in the hiftory of infedts, the name of a pe- culiar genus oi~ /fillers, the characters of which are thefe : T hey do not move regularly and evenly as other /f.iders, but hop in the manner of fleas. This was a character recorded of them by Pliny, and the antients, and is found at this time in all fpecies. They have a fquare forehead ; and in this are placed eight eyes of different fizes, and difpofcd in form of a part of a circle. They have alfo the forelegs greatly lon- ger and rtrongcr than any of the others. Of thefe there are four principal kinds: i. The grey /aider, variegated on the belly, with fix tranfverfe fafciae meeting in 'an angle in the middle. Thefe are alternately black, and of a filvery white. It is of a middle fize, and its grey colour feems a mixture ot a deep black and a filvery white. It is common in woods and about old walls 2. The reddifh browa/pider, variegated with two large black marks, and a foliaceous obfcure figure on the body. This is fomewhat fmaller than the former, and is found about old walls, but not frequently. 3. The yellowifh /pldcr, with green eyes, and with three yellow lines on the hips. This is of a middle fize, hut it is a very rare fpecies. 4. The reddilh rock /pidcr. This is a mo- derately large kind, and is of a reddifh chefnut colour. It is a very (arce/pitkr, and lives among rocks and on heaths. Ray's Hid. of Infeds, p. 36. See OriLlo.
Phalangium a'ulum, the afulian pholangium, a name given by authors to that large and poifonous fpecies of fpider called by the vulgar, the tarantula, from the name of a city of Ca- labria, Tarantum ; near which it is very common. Valetta, a monk of Apulia, who had always refided about the places where this mifchievous animal is moft frequent, and had had many opportunities of tracing its feveral qualities, publifhed a fuccincr, but very accurate hiftory of it in the year 1 706, under this name.
It had its name p'halangium, from the three phalanges or joints of its legs, and this name equally flitting many other fpiders, as well as this, it ceafed to be its appropriated name, and was applied as a generical term to feveral other fpiders of the larger kind ; among which this fpecies was always diftinguifhed by the epithet afulian, from the place where it was fo frequently found.
The tarantula, or apulian phahmgium, is frequent in all parts of this country, in uncultivated places, but more efpecially it breeds moft in funny dry hills, and particularly in fuch parts of them as are expofed to the fouth. It is faid not to be found any where, except in Apulia; but probably it is an inhabitant of many other places, tho' its poifon may not be violent enough any where elfe to bring on the effects it does there : as we find in vipers and many other poifonous crea- tures,^ that the ftrength of their poifon differs greatly in de- gree in different places. As this fpider is very tender, and eafily injured by cold winds and rain, it always di'Ts itfelf a cave in the fide of a hill for its habitation ; and ufually chufes for this purpofe the hardeft ground it can find, which is bet- ter able to defend it, and which it eafily works into with its forceps and claws. This always is hollowed upward in the hill, and by that means is fafe from wet, all the water in rainy feafons running down over its top. Sometimes it bur- rows itfelf a cave in a valley or pi in, hut then it always chufes a dry, ufually a chalky foil. In this cafe the entrance into its cave is fmall, and within there are feveral winding paffages : if it happens to be furprifed with wet in this place from hard rains, it quits the floor and hangs by its feet againft the top of the cave. It preys upon a number of fmall in- fe&s with which the fields of Apulia abound, and feldom appears in the day-time, but creeps out about the time of fun-fet, and preys at large upon the animals which are then betaking themielves to reft ; without the danger it would be expofed to from its own enemies by day-light, if at any time he remains the whole evening in his cave or den, it is only to practife another method of hunting his prey In this cafe he comes forward to the mouth of the hole, and there lies in wait ; his fore-legs are placed at the ex- tremity of the hole, and his eyes have a clear view all round. I he other infeefs are not aware of this trick, but as they walk near his hole he burfts out upon them, and feiz- ing them, conveys them into his habitation ; where, as foon as he has eaten them, he retires back into his cell to difpofe of the wings and other fragments, till he can carry them out
P H A
at a more convenient time, and then places himfe'f in his for- mer poifure for another prey.
The peafants of Apulia have a method of getting him out of his hole in the day-time, in order to deftrov him. This they do by making a foft biffing noife thro' an oatffraw; whether it be that the creature loves this found, or rather that he takes it for the voice of fome infecf that he is ufed to prey upon, he always comes out, and falls a facrifice to his greedynefs.
This creature has eight legs, and walks very well ; his le es have each three joints, and are covered with a fine downy hairynefs : they are of a whitifh colour at the bottom, and variegated with black lines, and are wholly black in' their upper part, where they are joined to the breaft Thefe all arife from a kind of oval {hieid, which is placed upon the breaft, and is black, hairy, and very bard. This is called by fome the fpeeulum of the tarantula. From the iboulders there grow a pair of horns, at leaft they are ufually- called fo, tho' they feem much better to defcrve the name of arms. The ufe of thefe is to hold faft the prey, th t it may not be able to efcape while he is killing it with his forceps. Thefe horns or arms have the fame number of joints that the lees have, but they greatly differ from the lees, in that they are fhortcr and of a ycllowiib colour. They are alfo covered with a longer and thicker hair, for the more certainly hold- ing the prey, and are terminated by black claws, and they are much fmaller and more capable of motion every way. The belly is cither white, or of a pale yellow, and is mark- ed with a tranfverfe black ftrc-ak : this is furrounded with fe- veral other fmall fpots of the fame colour, and is cloathed with a very fine and fhort down. I he whole body btfide is covered with longer hairs, and is of a wbitifh or brownifh colour The apex of the head, the fliield of the breaft, and the ends of the forceps, are as hard as a crab's claws, but the reft of the body is covered with a tender and fupple fkin. The eyes are very large, and of a fine fhining black; they are continually in motion, and when feen in the night or in a dufky place, they fhine like the eyes of a cat. In the place where the mouth is placed in other animals, there arifes in this a black hard forceps ; the tipper part of this inftru- ment is covered with a yellow hairynefs, and it is terminated by extremely fine and /harp claws, which the creature can open or clofe up at pleafure. While the arms hold the prey in a proper pofuion, thefe fharp points make wounds in the body, and ihc other parts of the forceps fqueeze the body tdl all its juices are prefl'ed out, and the creature feeds on them. The mouth is placed much below thefe, and Hands ex flly in the'proper place to receive the juices exprefted by this operation. The tarantula fleeps in his cave the whole winter, and a great part of the autumn and fpring"; and if during this time he is ploughed up, as is often the cafe, or is any other way taken out of bis hole, he is found quite* torpid and numbed, and is unable to do any mifchief bv biting. '
The hole or mouth of a tarantulous cave aVays gives fome idea of the fize of the creature within : he makes it fmall if he enters while youn : . ; and as he grows larger he eats away more and more of the earth to widen it iKU more, fo that the diameter of it is ufually about equal to the diameter of the body. The fize of a chefnut is about the ftandard of a full grown tarantula ; but there are fome old ones found much larger and more hairy. The female is known from the male by having longer legs and a larger bell.. They copulate in June and July, and at that feafon the females are often met with in the fields carrying the males upon their back ,n Auguft and September they lay their eggs, which remain the whole winter ; and in' the fnmmer after are hatched. Phny tells a ftory of the young ones always eating up their mother for the firft food, which is countenanced by the relation of the peafants in thofe parts, who fay that they all fwarm about her and fuck her juices from many places at once, till they leave her lifelefs carcafson the field and then go each their feveral way in fearch of other food I he bite of the tarantula, as it is called, is not properly a bite, but a wound infliaed in a very peculiar manner. The creature pierces the fkin with its forceps, and at that inftant injects from its mouth a poifon into the wound. The time in which their wounds are fatal, is that of their copulation ; at this time they are in their utmoft vigour and power of hurting. People of falhion arc rarely hurt by them, but principally the poor labourers, who fleep half naked in the held, and the women who travel the country with naked feet, gathering medicinal herbs.
rtuthors are divided about the nature of the poifon of the tarantula. Cardan fays it is a cold one, and Scalier fays it is a hot one; hut be this as it will, its effefl is very fudden- it is no looner received into the flefli but the veins take it up and carry it to the heart, where it becomes diffufed thro' the whole mafs of blood, and gives an immediate trembling of the hmbs, and a difficulty of breathing. The next part it feizes is the brain, where it produces different effects in dif- ferent (ubje-as ; and according to their ftate of health, and the condition of their juices, brings on various fpecies of phreniies.
The
