SCORPION. 
487 
assisted by the best microscopes he could procure, 
was not able detect any orifice, though he was 
well convinced of the existence of such, from ob- 
serving a minute drop of poison exsude from near 
the tip. Others have denied the existence of any 
foramen; but Vallisneri and Leewenhoek have 
properly described two foramina, viz. one on each 
side ; so that the sting of the scorpion can with 
greater facility discharge its poisonous fluid than 
that of any other Insect, A third foramen is said 
to have been sometimes observed*. 
The part in Scorpions which is situated beneath 
the breast, bearing the appearance of two minute 
combs, has been fixed upon by Linn^us as a 
criterion of the species; the number of teeth how- 
ever, varying occasionally in the same species, 
renders this character uncertain. The use of these 
organs remains as yet uninvestigated. 
Scorpions are viviparous insects, producing a 
very considerable number of young at once; these 
are at first entirely white, but acquire their dusky 
colour in the space of a few days, they are observed 
to cast their skin from time to time, in the manner 
of Spiders. 
Several fabulous anecdotes of these animals 
have been recorded by the older writers on na- 
tural history which are totally umyorthy of being 
related in the present enlightened age. One of 
the most remarkable of these legends is, that a 
Scorpion surrounded by live coals, finding no 
* Scorpionum arma fora minibus tribus scatent, Lin. Sj/si. 
Nat. 
