Quatremer Disjonval, a Frenchman by birth, was an adjutant-general in Holland, and took an active part on the side of the Dutch patriots when they revolted against the Stadtholder. On the arrival of the Prussian army under the Duke of Brunswick, he was immediately taken, tried, and, having been condemned to twenty-five years’ imprisonment, was incarcerated in a dungeon at Utrecht, where he remained eight years. During this long confinement, by many curious observations upon his sole companions, Spiders, he discovered that they were in the highest degree
sensitive of approaching changes in the atmosphere, and that their retirement and reappearance, their weaving and general habits, were intimately connected with the changes of the weather. In the reading of these living barometers he became wonderfully accurate, so much so, that he could prognosticate the approach of severe weather from ten to fourteen days before it set in, which is proven by the following remarkable fact, which led to his release: “When the troops of the French republic overran Holland in the winter of 1794, and kept pushing forward over the ice, a sudden and unexpected thaw, in the early part of December, threatened the destruction of the whole army unless it was instantly withdrawn. The French generals were thinking seriously of accepting a sum offered by the Dutch, and withdrawing their troops, when Disjonval, who hoped that the success of the republican army might lead to his release, used every exertion, and at length succeeded in getting a letter conveyed to the French general in 1795, in which he pledged himself, from the peculiar actions of the Spiders, of whose movements he was enabled to judge with perfect accuracy, that within fourteen days there would commence a most severe frost, which would make the French masters of all the rivers, and afford them sufficient time to complete and make sure of the conquest they had commenced, before it should be followed by a thaw. The commander of the French forces believed his prognostication, and persevered. The cold weather, which Disjonval had predicted, made its appearance in twelve days, and with such intensity, that the ice over the rivers and canals became capable of bearing the heaviest artillery. On the 28th of January, 1795, the French army entered Utrecht in triumph; and Quatremer Disjonval, who had watched the habits of his Spiders with so much intelligence and success, was, as a reward for his ingenuity, released from prison.”[1137]
In Bartholomæus, De Proprietatibus Rerum (printed by Th. Berthelet, 27th Henry VIII.), lib. xviii. fol. 314, speaking of Pliny, we read: “Also he saythe, spynners (Spiders) ben tokens of divynation and of knowing what wether shal fal, for oft by weders that shal fal, some spin and weve
higher or lower. Also he saythe, that multytude of spynners is token of moche reyne.”[1138]
Willsford, in his Nature’s Secrets, p. 131, tells us: “Spiders creep out of their holes and narrow receptacles against wind or rain; Minerva having made them sensible of an approaching storm.”[1139]
Hone, in his Every Day Book, also mentions that from Spiders prognostications as to the weather may be drawn; and gives the following instructions to read this animal-barometer: “If the weather is likely to become rainy, windy, or in other respects disagreeable, they fix the terminating filaments, on which the whole web is suspended, unusually short; and in this state they await the influence of a temperature which is remarkably variable. On the contrary, if the terminating filaments are uncommonly long, we may, in proportion to their length, conclude that the weather will be serene, and continue so at least for ten or twelve days. But if the Spiders be totally indolent, rain generally succeeds; though, on the other hand, their activity during rain is the most certain proof that it will be only of short duration, and followed with fair and constant weather. According to further observations, the Spiders regularly make some alterations in their webs or nets every twenty-four hours; if these changes take place between the hours of six and seven in the evening, they indicate a clear and pleasant night.”[1140]
Pausanias tells us that after the slaughter at Chæronea, the Thebans were obliged to place a guard within the walls of their city; but which, however, after the death of Philip, and during the reign of Alexander, they drove out. For this action, this historian continues, it was that Divinity gave them tokens in the webs of Spiders of the destruction that awaited them. For, during the battle at Leuctra, the Spiders in the temple of Ceres Thesmophoros wove white
webs about the doors; but when Alexander and the Macedonians attacked their dominions, their webs were found to be black.[1141]
It was thought by the Classical Ancients and the old English unlucky to kill Spiders; and prognostications were made from their manner of weaving their webs.[1142] It is still thought unlucky to injure these animals.
Park has the following note in his copy of Bourne and Brande’s Popular Antiquities, p. 93: “Small Spiders, termed money-spinners, are held by many to prognosticate good luck, if they are not destroyed or injured, or removed from the person on whom they are first observed.”