396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the French and English scientific journals. Scorpions had already 

 been found quite abundantly in the lowest carboniferous strata. The 

 first palaeozoic specimen that came to light ( Cyclophthalmus senior) 

 was found in the coal formation of Chombe, Bohemia, and was de- 

 scribed by Count Sternberg in 1835. Three years later another scor- 

 pion (31icrolabis) was described from the same locality. The next 

 discoveries were American, and were made in the coal-measures of 

 Illinois, of two genera which Meek and Worthen described as Eoscor- 

 pius (dawn-scorpion) and Mazonia (from Mazon Creek, where they 

 were found). In 1873 Dr. Henry Woodward showed that Eoscorpius 

 remains occurred in the coal-measures of England and in the carbon- 

 iferous limestone of Scotland ; and in 1881 Mr. Benjamin N. Peach 

 described a considerable number of scorpions which had been obtained 

 by the officers of the Geological Survey of Scotland from the lowest 

 carboniferous rocks of the Scottish border. In his paper, which was 

 published in the " Transactions " of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 he pointed out the general resemblance and almost equally high or- 

 ganization of these ancient scorpions and those of the present dajr, 

 and expressed regret that Messrs. Meek and Worthen had given the 

 name of Eoscorpius to their specimens, " for the dawn of the scorpion 

 family must have been at a much earlier period, and we may hope that 

 their remains w T ill yet turn up in the Devonian and Silurian plant-beds 

 when these come to be thoroughly searched." 



This prediction has been verified in the discovery of the Scotch and 

 the Swedish Silurian fossils. The Scotch scorpion was discovered first, 

 by Dr. Hunter, of Carluke, who obtained his specimen from Lesma- 

 hagow, in Lanarkshire, in June, 1883 ; but the Swedish professor, Lind- 

 strom, although a year later in discovery, anticipated him in announc- 

 ing it and in publishing the description of his fossil. 



In a letter of November 24, 1884, to M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, 

 Professor Lindstrom says of his scorpion (Fig. 1) : " The specimen is 

 in sufficiently good preservation, and shows the chitinous brown or 

 yellowish-brown cuticle, very thin, compressed, and corrugated by the 

 pressure of the superposed layers. We can distinguish the cephalo- 

 thorax, the abdomen, with seven dorsal lamina?, and the tail, consisting 

 of six segments or rings, the last narrowing and sharpening into the 

 venomous dart. The sculpture of the surface, consisting of tubercles 

 and longitudinal keels, entirely corresponds with that of living scor- 

 pions. One of the stigmata on the right is visible, and clearly demon- 

 strates that it must have belonged to an air-breathing animal, and the 

 whole organization indicates that it lived on dry land." Professor 

 Lindstrom points out, as a feature of great importance in the conforma- 

 tion of the animal, the existence of four pairs of thoracic feet, large 

 and pointed, resembling the feet of the embryos of several other tra- 

 cheates and animals like the Campodea. This form of feet, he re- 

 marks, " no longer exists in the fossil scorpions of the carboniferous 



