The popular belief that spider bites are poisonous has found little support in scientific writings. Entomologists and arachnologists have been almost unanimous in asserting the innocuous nature of spiders, and medical men have been accused of unscientific readiness to accept popular reports without attempting to establish the truth or falsity of the facts claimed. A spider bite, as any other wound, may easily become infected; thus, definite cases of tetanus, anthrax, erysipelas, cellulitis and septicemia, proved at necropsy and by bacteriologic examinations, have been reported as arising from spider bites by Lawrence, Garcia, Wight, Davison and Presley. Moreover, the very measures adopted for the treatment of a spider bite may in themselves be the cause of many of the symptoms reported, as the local sloughs following the injection of ammonia water or the application of caustics, or the symptoms of intoxication following the free imbibition of "stimulants." The possibility of