THE SPIDER POISONS


The Latrodectus mactans is the largest spider of its family. It sometimes attains a length of one-half inch. The abdomen is round and the whole body is a velvety black, except a bright red spot underneath and one or more red spots over the spinnerets and along the middle of the back.


LATRODECTUS MACTANS.

This “Black Widow,” as it is called, is a member of the genus Latrodectus of the family Theridiidae, which bears the name of being the only truly venomous family of spiders. However this may be, observations of Latrodectus poisonings have been recorded that show it to be a powerful venom, having a direct action on the circulatory system. In fifteen cases observed by Dr. Boger in the Los Angeles General Hospital, the spiders bite had been witnessed by the patient, and nearly all these cases developed pain in the legs and abdomen, extreme abdominal rigidity, high blood pressure and high temperature. Had these cases been recorded by a trained homoeopathic physician, how much valuable data we might have gained!.

It is significant that the higher types of animal development show the greatest reaction to Latrodectus poisoning. Horses and camels have succumbed to the bite, while sheep and pigs can eat the spider without any ill effects, and are used to clear fields of the spiders instead of the more common custom of burning over the fields. Experiments have determined that extracts from the poison gland of the spider will kill a cat very quickly.

The Latrodectus mactans is the largest spider of its family. It sometimes attains a length of one-half inch. The abdomen is round and the whole body is a velvety black, except a bright red spot underneath and one or more red spots over the spinnerets and along the middle of the back. The legs of the male are much longer than those of the female, although the male varies in size of body very much, in some instances being only about one-fourth the size of the female. Each joint of the legs is marked with orange, shading to black at the edges of the joint. The male also has four pairs of stripes along his sides, red in the middle and white at the edges.

This spider makes its nest among loose stones, on plants or in houses. Around its hiding place it spins a large funnel-shaped tent that widens into a flat or curved sheet of web, closer in texture toward the tube and more open toward the edges, spreading two or three feet over plants and stones. It is found all over the United States as far north as Massachusetts and New Hampshire, although its northward spread was by forced means, a professor whose summer home was in New Hampshire carrying some specimens north for experimental purposes, and they escaped from captivity and made themselves at home.

Their habitat extends southward through Florida, the West Indies and South America, as far as Chile. It is probably the Theridion curassavicum of the West Indies, or a very near relative, for the Theridion cur. also has the velvety black body with the spots in the same relative position as the Latrodectus mactans (the large spot underneath and the three smaller ones above) but the color of the spots in Theridion cur., is not bright red, but yellow underneath and orange-red above, and in size the Theridion cur. is about the size of a cherry pit.

Many of the Latrodectus symptoms that have been recorded resemble those of Theridion cur., although Latrodectus has not been thoroughly proven, and Theridion cur. was proven by that indefatigable worker, Hering. Had there been a more careful proving of Latrodectus by such a master as Hering, we might have noted more similarities.

It is interesting to note that the genus Latrodectus will eat almost anything, including tarentulas, scorpions woodlice and lizards, and even the Spanish fly, cantharides, all without showing any poisonous effects.

The poisonous effects of the bile of this spider on human beings have given us some peculiar and valuable symptoms, which are almost wholly associated with the action of the poison on the heart. There is disorganization of the blood, with inability to coagulate. We have used this remedy in these critical conditions with prompt and marked effect.

In the mental sphere there are symptoms of great anxiety and fear that dissolution is impending. This is not so much a fear as a foreknowledge of the approaching dissolution, with the attendant fear; and the countenance shows this great anxiety.

The heart symptoms are marked. There are very violent praecordial pains extending to the left axilla, down the left arm to the hand and fingertips. The patients left arm seems to become almost paralyzed with the pain, and there is extreme numbness. The pulse becomes very rapid, so that it can hardly be counted, and so weak it is almost imperceptible.

The respiration is slow and gasping. There is great shortness of breath, approaching apnoea.

The surface of the body breaks out into a cold perspiration.

There are severe abdominal pains with nausea and sinking sensations in the epigastrium. Finally there is vomiting of black blood, with dark bloody evacuations of the bowels.

LATRODECTUS KATIPO.

This venomous spider is found in some parts of California and in New Zealand. The recorded symptoms are those produced by bites. The symptoms are slow in evolution, and in a fatal case which was recorded, the child, who was bitten on the abdomen, did not die until six weeks after the bite.

The bite produces a small raised place like that of a flea- bite, sometimes with intense burning. This swells, sometimes at once and sometimes after the lapse of a few days, as large around as a teacup, white with a red halo. There are severe pains running upward from the bite, as in Latrodectus mactans, accompanied with a great deal of burning pain and severe twitching. The face becomes anxious, with extreme pallor, changing to a bluish tint. There is nervous depression and delirium. The jaws become stiff, so the patient cannot eat, nor scarcely articulate. The heart becomes slow in action and the patient is almost pulseless. The appearance of the patient is as of one going into a decline. Those bitten take a long time in recovering; after very long and gradual loss of strength the tide may turn and there will be a long, slow convalescence.

A marked peculiar symptom is the sensation as if the heel were lacerated by a dull instrument; a bruised pain, which awakens him from sleep, and which is an aggravation in sleep.

In these animal poisons we expect to find the anxious expression as a result of heart complications, and the pallor and blue tint extending from the face to the entire body, are of course due to the disorganized condition of the blood, which almost always is the first action of these animal poisons.

The stiffness of the jaws is so great that the patient can not eat, nor scarcely speak. There is a loss of all desire for food; severe cramping and drawing pains in the abdomen.

Respiration is very greatly slowed, almost ceases. The pulse becomes very slow, scarcely more than twelve to fourteen beats to the minute.

There are severe burning pains running from the foot and limbs to the back, but centering about the heel. The sensation in his sleep as if his heel were being lacerated.

With these symptoms, there is nervous twitching beginning in the limbs and extending over the whole body; severe shaking; lack of energy; sudden faint spells, with pallor; great emaciation and wasting.

THERIDION CURASSAVICUM.

Theridion curassavicum, or the Orange Spider, is a native of the West Indies, coming from the island of Curacoa, where it is found on orange trees. It is about the size of a cherry stone. When young it is velvety black with anterior and posterior lines composed of white dots. Later the markings are three orange red spots on the posterior of the body and on the belly a square yellow spot. This is an exceedingly poisonous spider, and the poison has a marked action on the nervous system, producing weakness and trembling, coldness, anxiety and fainting.

There are two very characteristic symptoms always present when Theridion is indicated. One is the excessive sensitiveness to the least noise. This sensitiveness extends to vibrations as well as noise, as jars or the moving of a carriage, or even the moving of a boat, the vibration against the waves. Another peculiar sensation is as if these vibrations extended to the teeth, and were felt most in the teeth. “Sounds penetrate the body, and especially the teeth, increasing the vertigo and causing nausea.” Many symptoms make this remedy applicable in sunstroke.

Because of its symptomatology, this remedy is very often of value in hysterias, especially the hysterical conditions of puberty and during the climacteric. It is indicated in many nervous disorders, and it is peculiarly useful in some forms of seasickness.

Hering introduced and proved this spider poison in 1832, using the preparations made from the live spider crushed in alcohol. Herings careful observations elicited a very interesting symptomatology.

The provers found that time passed very quickly; their inclination to mental exertions was increased, and they became very talkative, hilarious and even hysterical. Then the reverse side of the picture, great aversion to work, especially to do the common tasks of everyday life. There was great mental depression, especially with the headaches, and with the peculiar toothaches there is much weeping and hysterical manifestations.

H.A. Roberts
Dr. H.A.Roberts (1868-1950) attended New York Homoeopathic Medical College and set up practrice in Brattleboro of Vermont (U.S.). He eventually moved to Connecticut where he practiced almost 50 years. Elected president of the Connecticut Homoeopathic Medical Society and subsequently President of The International Hahnemannian Association. His writings include Sensation As If and The Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy.