International jovwnal of ntrmatoloj»y. Vol. 34, No. 4. April 1995 REMINISCENCE OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB: THE MEDICINAL USES OE SPIDER SILK JAMES NEWMAN, M.D., AND CATHERINE NEWMAN For a cobweb astringeth, refrigerateth, solderth, joyneth togetber . . . not suffering rotten or filthy material to remain. Pliny the Elder' From Ancient Rome to Colonial America, spider silk has occupied a unique position in the Materia Medica for both external and internal purposes. It has been used as an astringent, a styptic, a febrifuge, even as an anxiolytic. The medicinal value of the spider and its web is noted in the mythology and literature of many cultures. While other therapeutic anachronisms, such as bezoars, are considered little more than placebo, there may be biochemical and epidemiologic explana- tions for the cobweb's historical appeal. BACKGROUND The spider spins silk that is as strong as steel, yet as elastic as a rubberband.*^ The web is used for every- thing from predation to communication. The variety of form and function has enabled the thousands of species of Araneus to fill many ecologie niches.-' "Spi- ders crawl into kings' courts to teach them virtue, they work in noble men's chambers to teach them their du- ties, and dwell in poor men's houses to teach tbem contentment, patience, labor, and industry."' slenderest feet of the spider, mixed with oil, were placed on the eye. Another Roman, Marcellus Empiri- cus, believed the spider web to be good for running tet- ter (impetigo). Additionally, he considered the ashes of web, mixed witb polenta, useful for joint wounds. Fi- nally for "malignant whitlow," a surreptitiously placed cobweb could effect a cure.'' A Roman surgeon might roll web around a wart and set it ablaze to remove the growth.' Galen advised placing a spider coccoon witb- in a painful carious tooth.'' Other uses include the treatment of serpigo (ringworm)' and leprosy."• Spider web has gained special notoriety as a styptic. In the Battle of Crecy in 1356, the French troops car- ried packets of web to be used for hemorrhage.'' Shake- speare mentions this use in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act II; 1): "I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master cobweb. If I cut my finger 1 shall make bold with you..." Notably, Shakespeare's son-in-law, a pbysician named Dr. John Hall, used spider web as well as other biologicals, such as animal excreta and poultry larynx, in his practice.** ln 18th-century France, spider web was used in the field of cutaneous oncology. Rousselot, a chiropodist to the Dauphin, used arsenic as a caustic. One thera- peutic formulation was a mix of arsenic, cinnabar, and sanguinaria. This was mixed in the palm witb saliva as a dilutant and applied to the cancer, covered with a spider web to keep it in place.^ EXTERNAL USES An excellent discussion of the Roman and medieval uses of spiders and their webs is found in "The History of Four-Footed Beasts, Serpents, and Insects," a 17th- century work on natural history.'-'' Many of these ap- plications are dermatologic, as both a styptic and ther- apy for a variety of skin lesions. According to Pliny,'-^ a first-century Roman and strong web proponent, for open wounds and sanies (serosanguinous discharge), the placement of a web would promote healing. He also proposed that albugo (corneal opacity), also known as the "Pin and Web,"'' would respond if the Address for correspondence: James Newman, M.D., 1501 Broadway, Galveston, TX 77550. INTERNAL USES There are many internal uses for spider web. A colo- nial American belief was that web, rolled in a ball and swallowed, could cure asthma'" and was also powerful for a consumptive cough." Cobweb from a cypress tree was considered the best type for the treatment of podagra (gout)."" The Greek naturalist, Dioscorides, said that the spider that spins a thick web, shut up in a piece of flannel or nutshell, and hung beneath the arm would cure a quartan ague.'^ In Longfellow's poem Evangeline the kyphotic Father Leblanc speaks of "how fever was cured by a spider shut up in a nut- shell." Pliny makes the interesting observation that a spider taken while descending its thread, crushed in the naval will provoke the bowels to move; however, if ap- 290