MY PET SCORPION. 613 



of cemented sand or clay, under which they travel securely. Un- 

 fortunately, too, they do not always confine their ravages to dead 

 wood. Every orange grower fears them, and if they once get a foot- 

 hold the tree that they attack is often destroyed before anything is 

 suspected to be the matter. They " love darkness rather than light," 

 and " their deeds are evil." And it is these miserable pests that my 

 little-appreciated and much-slandered Thelyphonus has been all her 

 life fighting! And those big, strong claws of hers, that look so for- 

 midable, what are they for but to tear down and break in pieces the 

 hard, honeycombed structures in which her food is hidden? It was 

 all plain enough now! 



I confess, when I first discovered these facts which turn popular 

 natural history so completely topsy-turvy, I felt like taking off my 

 hat and making my profoundest bow to my little captive, and in 

 the name of justice and humanity asking pardon for all the slanders 

 and indignities heaped upon her race. 



Since writing the above, a private note from Prof. L. O. Howard, 

 chief of the Division of Entomology in the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, furnishes important addi- 

 tional testimony upon the question of the harmlessness of this 

 arachnid. Professor Howard says, " The Thelyphonus is not poi- 

 sonous." 



Perhaps a way of reconciling at least some of the conflicting 

 statements that have been made on the subject may be found in the 

 facts revealed by modern bacteriological investigations. It is well 

 known that under special conditions the bite of the most harmless 

 animal may convey to the human system pathogenic germs which 

 will speedily prove fatal. Most of the deaths reported in the news- 

 papers from the bite of the Thelyphonus are no doubt imaginary, 

 or due entirely to other causes. Any well-authenticated case — if 

 such there has been — is probably to be explained in the manner 

 above indicated. This theory, too, helps to " let down easy " some 

 prominent naturalists whose great names have served to give 

 countenance to one of the most widespread and persistent errors 

 in current natural history. 



In a memorial address of the late Dr. James Hall, made at the recent 

 meeting of the Geological Society of America, Secretary H. L. Fairchild 

 referred to Dr. Hall's development as almost coeval with that of the sci" 

 ence of geology in America, and his sixty-two years of activity as connect- 

 ing the work of the self-taught pioneers in this branch with the widespread 

 field of activity of to-day. Dr. Hall's accuracy and weli-balanced observa- 

 tion had made his first work, a report on the Geology of Western New 

 York, a classic of the science to-day. 



