De l'Araneologie, ou sur la decouverte du rapport constant entre l'apparition ou la disparition, le travail ou le repos. - [PREDICTING THE WEATHER THROUGH SPIDERS]

Paris, J. J. Fuchs, an V. (1797). 8vo. In contemporary marbled paper covered boards with small paper label pasted on to top of spine. Scratch to back board otherwise a nice and clean copy. (2), 164 pp.

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First edition of this rather unusual treatise on spiders in which Quatremère-Disjonval explores the relationship between spiders and weather conditions he used spiders as an indicator for atmospheric variations. Quatremère-Disjonval (1754-1830) was banished by Napoleon after the bankruptcy of his cotton spinning mill. Exiled to the Netherlands, he was imprisoned in Utrecht for his peculiar ideas and research. During his imprisonment, he studied the behavior of spiders. It was through atmospheric predictions derived from the behavior of spiders that Quatremère-Disjonval warned Jean-Charles Pichegru, French general, in the winter of 1795 of an impending severe frost, which trapped the Dutch fleet in the ice of the Zuiderzee and thus allowed the French armies to invade the Netherlands without resistance. This prediction earned him his release.