A Spider's Web - Peakall, David B.

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Résumé :
Gradually, a faint brightness appeared in the east, and the air, which had been very warm through the night, felt cool and chilly. Though there was no daylight yet, the darkness was diminished, and the stars looked pale. The prison, which had been a mere black mass with little shape or form, put on its usual aspect; and ever and anon a solitary watchman could be seen upon its roof, stopping to look down upon the preparations in the street . . . By and by the feeble light grew stronger, and the houses with their sign-boards and inscriptions stood plainly out, in the dull grey morning . . . And now, the sun's first beams came glancing into the street; and the night's work, which, in its various stages and in the varied fancies of the lookers-on had taken a hundred shapes, wore its own proper form - a scaffold and a gibbet . . . (The Complete Works of Charles Dickens, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, Barnaby Rudge, Vol. II, Chapter XIX, page 164. ) Dickens describes an activity which takes place in the early morning hours, just before sunrise. As the day begins and people start to go about their business and get ready to watch the hanging, the hangman is ready with the gallows.

Sommaire:
I. The Story of the Drug Web.- II. The Silk Glands.- A. Structure and Functions of Silk Glands.- The Ampullate Glands (.- The Aggregate Glands (.- Function of Silk Glands used in Web-Building (.- Structure and Function of the Other Silk Glands (.- Chemical and Physical Properties of Silk (.- Control of Drag-Line Spinning (.- B. Regulation of Protein Synthesis in Silk Glands.- Methods (.- Cycle of Events Following Cholinergic Stimulation (.- Relationship to the Natural Cycle (.- Regulation of Silk Glands Other than Ampullate Glands (.- Amounts of Protein in Web-Building (.- III. Specificity of the Web.- IV. Altered Web Patterns.- A. Methods of Investigation.- Procurement of Webs in the Laboratory (.- Obtaining the Record (.- Computations (.- Drug Application (.- B. Changes of Webs with Age.- C. Changes of Web Pattern with Changes in Body Weight.- D. Dependence of Web Geometry of the Number of Legs.- E. Feeding.- F. Effect of Drugs.- D-Amphetamine (.- Mescaline and Psilocybin (.- Caffeine (.- Strychnine (.- Phenobarbital (Luminal) and Diazepam (Valium) (.- Chlorpromazine (Thorazine, Largactil) (.- D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD 25) (.- Physostigmine (.- Atropine (.- Scopolamine (.- Diethyl Ether (C2H5)2O (.- Carbon Monoxide (CO) (.- Carbon Dioxide (CO2) (.- Nitrous Oxide (N2O) (.- Adrenochrom (.- V. Construction of the Web.- A. The Process of Construction.- B. The Course of Construction.- C. The Neurophysiological Basis of Web-Building.- VI. References and Acknowledgements.- Author Index.