j jmgazine Section , 1,jjjf -ffj fiblttll Sunday, March 30, 1913 - I
I (j&tW Inherit Our. Earth? J
IlReffltfkable Photograph of the Spider of Narhonne Holding Her QL;
Eggs Up to the Sun to Hatch.
an Must Gioe Way to Some
Ii Other Creature, Says H. G.
Wells, the English Philosopher,
and Maeterlinck, the Belgian,
i Suggests the Hideous Insects,
muuBorn of a Demented Comet,"
m as Man's Successors
ImHB Intelligence of the insects be
I comes a more fascinating and
disturbing problem the more it
b studied.
hi now comes the suggestion that the
beets, and most probably the spiders, are
festlned to supplant man as the rulers of
fie earth. The suggestion gains support
bom man? scientiflo arguments. A very
ttsirkfible book, "The Life of the Spider,"
tjr J, H. Fabre, a French naturalist of
urpasBlng genius, has Just been 'published
1; Dodd, Head & Co.
It contains a long preface by Maurice
Hi'terllnck, the philosophic writer and
fcjrapher of the bee. He advances the
fei strongly that the spider may be des
ired to be our successor' oh. earth. From
feiterllnck's arguments and Fabre's ob
KT2tlons it appears that this insect is in.
uy ways much more fitted to rule the
unh.than man..
The spider is absolutely ruthless. It
presses a poison with which it can kill
pr paralyze any creature at will. It has
Bidsss industry and knows neither lazl
ass nor intemperance. It sustains life
n'ti great economy. It is never led astray
If Its passions; It is a superb architect
ted craftsman. In its ability to float
goat on a line of web it shows itself to
are learnt tho secret of the aeroplane
K before man.
HiTlng eight legs and eight eyes, j
as spider is physically far superior
from the construction of its web
twejs reason to believe that it is W
ecperb mathematician and geo
fetrlclan. It appears to have part
fMlYedthe problem of obtaining
"ftf directly from the sun, for
wyoung.are kept alive in that way
r flvo or six months. Notwith
Jwing the mental capacity of
'Plfler, It is a repulBlve creature. Man
J UiBunctlve antipathy to it. To M.
MHerllnck the malignance of the spider
'pats that it Ib a creature from another
JW, where 'life Ib wholly alien to ours.
spider's matrimonial relations fill him
1 horror.
Prrlage customs," he says, "are
and, contrary to that which hap
la every other world, here it is tho
Jeof the pair that stands for strength
intelligence and also for cruelty and
jW, which appear to be their inevit
J consequence. Almost every wedding
U In the violent and immediate death
2?i baui 0ften' the bridQ S"18
Ung a certain number of suitors.
1Hi1a vPe of these fantastic unions
'iSfori BQPPHed by the Languodocinn
rM'tonS115' who-as we know cariy lob"
BS i?affB and a lo" tail supplied
'S'feL V B' which Is extremely danger
'Sifl. have a Prelude to the festival
fS'I fiii P2 of a EentJmental stroll, claw
iBlrJ' D' mtlonle8s, with fingers
'iBltefnii d' they contemplate each other .
vZrJr' terminably; day and night
Gi7rttelr ecstasy while they remain
5 WNert DetrIfled wltu admiration.
fiBSt'h'ij!116 foreheads come together and
JMOft moulhs if "wo can give the
n; m?uth t0 tQe monstrous orifice
tBfe,3n8.between tuo claws are joined
SteCi? ? Ubb; after wnlch the union is
tnXi lho male is transfixed with
&acW J5 and tho terrible spoubo
jJSr. apa gobbles him up with gusto."
'ton??! tecst hoo "The Study of the
' TM! u ,y G- WellB- (Published by
Htt'ttff BCh:New York.), lends strength
jMcttj.0! 017 "!at the spider may be man's
' 'Mm.,;' r Wells argues very forcibly
t mft Dearth1 bo the ultimate form of
' -f'ti"Se Llfe 01 tlio Spider," M. Fabre
'( Kwtbioii ooraPlete biography of the
m4UuXi,tarantula' the most terrible
'tit iSl plderB- Here It should be noted
Wer . U,thor always speaks of tho
aOb!!:. !hc- She builds a wonderful
tjWmt lif tunnel for a dwelling. At
ftf 6 "Jches' from the surface it
tjHtifar a obtUBo angle. It is at the
'jHPits herpow tunncl tbat 016 tarantula
.' !W for vioii aB a vigilant sentry, watch-
nnce7fn?la ,S 51 clever architect. The
1 Rt . r burrow is surmounted by
S -18 a ,ted throughout by herself.
oBSftlW fenulny work of architecture,
iH6m 55 ?uch as an lRch abov tho
jyrtwo inches In diameter, so
What Wells Says of Man's Successor -If
THE fact that man is not final is the great unmanageable, dis- -M
tarblng fact that arises upon us in the scientific discovery of '
the future, and, to my mind at any rate, the question what is to
come after man is the moBt persistently fascinating and the most M
insoluble question in the whole world.
Of course, we have no answer. Such imaginations as we hav
refuse to rise to the task.
'''W ' n dim future be like this ? Giar.i spiders ruling the world, and the pitful
&kI DftVkiffi remnants of mankind begging for life from their hideous conquerors?"
quite unconcerned when some of them fell
off and were killed.
The naturalist proved tho astonishing
fact that tho Individuals of this family
would adopt themselves to their environ
ment, buildintr houses of a kind their
The Stalk-eyed Spider Nothing but a Great Mechanical Body v rf8S
Moved by an Alert, Cruel Intelligence Poised High Above It jIctP
a custom like that of the human head
hunters of Borneo.
"One day," says the author, "I picked
out two full grown and very powerful
males and put them together in a wide
jar. After walking around the arena sev
eral times to try and avoid each other,
they made up their minds to fight
"I saw them, to my surprise, take their
distances and sit up solemnly on their
hind legB, so as mutually to present the
shield of their chests to each other. After
watching them face to face like that for
two minutes, during which they bad pro
voked each other by glances, I saw them
fling themselves upon each othor, twisting
their legB together and struggling to blb
one another with their langs. -
"Whether from fatigue or from conven
tion, the combat was suspended. There
.was a few seconds truce and each athlete
moved away and resumed his threatening
posture. This circumstance reminded me
that in the strange fights between cats,
there are also suspensions of hostilities.
"But the contest was soon renewed be
tween my two tarantulas with increased
florcenesB. Ono of them, after holding
-victory in the balance for a while, was at
last thrown and recolvod a mortal wound
in the head. Ho becamo tho prey of the
conqueror, who tore open his skull and
devoured its brains."
Every spider mixes a poison that is ex
actly suited for the purposo In view. The
tarantula, which does not weave cords
to bind Its victims, needs a poison that
will kill instantly, or the victim may es
cape or do damage to the home. Even
tho rattlesnake's poiBOn does not Kill so
quickly. It takes hours to accomplish
what tho tarantula does in less than' a sec
ond. k
The tarantula kills by preference at
night or in the darkness, for it can then
take Its victim entirely by surprise. M.
Fabre hung a fat and powerful carpenter
bee before the burrow of a Narbonne tar
antula until the latter rushed out and
killed the bee.
"The tarantula's fangs are planted in
the nape of the neck," says M. Fabre
The assassin has the knowledge - which i I
suspected. She has made for the essentially
vital centre. She has stung the insects
cervical ganglia with her poison fangs.
In short, she has bitten the only point
whoro a losion produces sudden death.
This tarantula's poiBon only produced
paralysis in the log of a bird, but the
paralysis was permanent aiid ended in
Evidently the poison only produces sud
den death when applied to tho most sen.
sltivo nerve centres.
M. Fabre very reasonably concludes that
the tarantula is the most scientific mur
derer of all the webless spider family.
She placos her fangs upon the cervical
nerve-centres with an astonishing physio
logical knowledge and dexterity that no
human surgeon can show.
Tho Narbonne tarantula, after hatchliig
out her young, carries them on her back
tor four or five months. They number
hundreds. In spite of this trouble, M.
Fabre decided that the spider had no ma
ternal affection for her young. She was
A Great West Indies Spider Paralyzing a Lizard with Its
Poison. The Spider's Extraordinary Knowledge of
Poisons Is One of the Things Tbat Qualifies It
as Man's Successor.
' :
What Maeterlinck Says of the Spider 1
THERE is something, on the other hand, about the insect thaf
does not seem to belong to the habits, the ethics, the psy
chology of our globe. One would be inclined to say that the m
insect comes from another planet, more monstrous, more energetic, 5l
more insane, more atrocious, more infernal than our own. One
would think that it was born of some comet that had lost its course
and died demented in space.
There is, no doubt, in this astonishment and lack of understand-
ing (of the spider) a certain instinctive and profound uneasiness
inspired by those existences incomparably better armed, better
equipped, than by our own, by those creatures made up of a sort of H
compressed energy and activity in whom we suspect our most rays- H
- . ii:mn0 rival and verhaps, our successors-
forimm ndvprsaries. our Ultimate mais ana, i
race had never known before. He found,
for instance, that they constructed houses
of pebbles, when forced to do so, although
they had always worked in soft earth.
The tarantula puts pieces of her prey
on the roof to be baked and preserved by
the sun.
One of the myste
ries of spider life is
that the young of
the turantula and
other species, while
they are on the
mother's back for
months, take no food
nnd obtain nothing
from the mother's
bod. M. Fabre ad
vances the interest
ing theory that they
live directly by solar
energy, thus sug
gesting that the
spiders have solved
a problem which is
regarded as the ulti
mate goal of human
science.
"Instead of being
served up through
the Intermediary of
food and passing
through the igno
minious circuit of
gastric chemistry,
could not this so
lar energy pene
trate the animal directly and charge ii
with activity, even as the battery charges (
an accumulator with power?" M. Fabra
aBks, "Why not live on sun, Beeing that -i
after all, we find nought but Bun in the .
Iruits which we consume?"
The banded epeira is the handsomest ot jj
the southern French Bpiders. On her fat '1
belly, a mighty Bilk warehouse, nearly as 1
large as a hazel nut. are alternate yellow, 9,
black and silver sashes. ft!
The epeira constructs a magnificent & ll
radiating upright web. In the lower part IH
of the web, starting from the centre, a "Il
wide opaque ribbon descends zigzag-wisa
across the radii. This is the epelra'B trade
mark. The flourish of an artist initialling
niB creation.
"That the spider feels satisfied when, tM
after passing and repassing from spoke to
spoke, she finishes her spiral is beyond a
doubt," comments M. Fabre. "The work
aohieved Insures her food for a few days
to come."
Desoribing the artistic taste and archi
tectural skill of this spider, the author
"The epeira ends her web with a dead
white angular flourish she ends her nest fl
with brown mouldings' which run down
irregularly from the marginal junction to
the bulging middle. For this purpose she
makes use for the third time of a different
silk; she then produces silk of a dark
hue, varying from russet to black. The
spinnerets distribute the material with a
wide longitudinal swing from pole to
pole, and the hindlegs apply it in capri
clous ribbons."
M. Fabre has observed that the epeira'
is ambidextrous, a valuable quality in the
struggle for existence to which man has
so far aspired in vain. In whatever dl
rection she turns, Bhe uses the nearest jH
of her eight legs with the same dexterity. jH
The spider uses her web in some mys- '
terlous way as a telegraph wire. "When a
fly or other possible prey touches the
most distant part of the web she hastens
to the spot, but if the structure is dis- jH
turbed by a man she hides herself. There
is reason to believe that the web carries
to her news of just what is happening jH
on
After showing that the spider Is a skilled
aeroplanist, an architect, a handler of all IH
sortB of tools and Implements of precision, IH
M. Fabre goes on to adduce evidence from IH
the form of the wob that this insect pob
sesses a knowledge of geometry, mathe- tH
matics and logarithms, 'H
"Taken as a whole," he says, "the rope- jH
latticed edifice consists of a series ofi
crossbars, Intersecting the several radiat
ing lines obliquely at angles of equal
"By this characteristic we recognize the IH
'logarithmic spiral Geometricians give
this name to the curve which intersects jH
obliquely at angles of unvarying value IH
all the straight lines or 'radii vectores' IH
radiating from a centre called the -pole.
' The epelra's construction, therefore, is a jH
series of cordB joining the intersections ol
a logarithmic spiral with a series of radii. IH
It would become merged in this spiral if IH
the number of radii were Infinite, for this
would reduce the length of the rectilinear
elements indefinitely and change this poly
gonal line into a curve."
No. 219 Essentia! Exercises mWm U
I KNOW that every time the word
"exercise" is mentioned one feels
a bit weary. We are so tired of
systems of exercises, of pursuing the
treadmill of "Right one, left one, up,
down, breathe," etc. And I think
that especially in tho case of a
woman of frail physique the matter
of exercise is overdone.
But there is something of which
no one ever tires. That is beauty.
And for the culture and preserva
tion of beauty there must be exor
cise. What exorcise, and how much
of It, is largely an individual ques
tion, as is food. One woman re
quires for the maintenance of her
Btrength and beauty three full meals
a day. Some need to eat ofton and
little, and others get on comfortably
and thrive on two meals a day, with
possibly a glass of. milk or an apple
or orange between those meals,
But aa overyone needs somo fruit,
some iron-containing foodB, as spin
ach and string beans and beets,
plenty of water and some bulky
cetaals, &a com. and wheat, so there
are essential exercises. Walking is
one of these.
Count that day unwisely spent
that does not Include a walk, tho
longer tho bettor. But mark that ,1
said a walk, not a dawdlo, nor a
saunter. One should walk briskly,
to assure deeper breathing than
usual. According to your strongth
and the time at your disposal let
your walk bo. English women llko
a ten-mile dally trudge. American
wotnon think two or three miles
onough. But tho EngllBh women
havo the better complexions. On
the othor" hand tho women of Amor
Ica expend more nervous energy in
their conversation, their work and
play, and because of that extra outgo
of nerve u orco rt may be well to
expend less onorgy In walkng. Tho
rule of taow many miles you should
walk a day you must make for your
self, letting circumstances govern,
but having in mind that thero should
be one vjjalk a day to keep your skin
clear, your eyes bright and your
Another exercise I consider essen
tial to most women and particularly
to those of Amerloa, who are in
clined to a thickening of the middle
of the figure, especially at middle
life. That is the twisting of tho
trunk on tho hips. Turning from
right to loft, and from left to right,
keeping the body erect all the while
will keep the muscles of tho back
firm, reduco the flesh In that part of
the body and reduce the abdomen.
A third essential exercise has no
less ordinary name than squatting.
Bending the knees and sinking to
and rising from a sitting posture
several times every day will keep
the body supple.
These, with deep Inhalings and ex
hallngs every day, the sweeping the ,
lungs free from Impure air and fill
ing them with fresh, clean air, should
keep one In good condition, so far
as tho need of exercise goes. Spe
cial exorcises for special cases are
well known. These four should meet
the average needs, and are so neces
sary that I have named them the es