264 LECTURE XIX. 



the union. Certain it is that an explanation of this singular condition 

 of the male apparatus, in which the intromittent organ is transferred 

 to the remote and outstretched palp, is afforded by the insatiable 

 proneness to slay and devour in the females of these most predacious 

 of articulated animals. 



The young and inexperienced male, always the smallest and 

 weakest of the sexes, has been known to fall a victim and pay the 

 forfeit of his life for his too incautious approaches. The more ex- 

 perienced suiter advances with many precautions ; carefully feels 

 about with his long legs ; his outstretched palpi being much agitated : 

 the female indicates acquiescence by raising her fore-feet from the 

 web, when the male rapidly advances ; his palpi are extended to their 

 utmost, and a drop of clear liquid ejected from the tip of each clavate 

 end, where it remains attached, the tips themselves immediately 

 coming in contact with a transverse fleshy kind of teat or tubercle 

 protruded by the female from the base of the under side of the 

 abdomen. After consummation, the male is sometimes obliged to 

 save himself by a precipitate retreat ; for the ordinary savage instincts 

 of the female, " etiam in amoribus saeva," are apt to return, and she 

 has been known to sacrifice and devour her too long tarrying or 

 dallying spouse. 



There is a redeeming feature in the psychical character of the 

 female spider, in the devotion with which she fulfils all the duties of 

 the mother. But before proceeding with the examples of the ma- 

 ternal instinct, I shall first point out the anatomical characters of the 

 generative organs in the scorpion. 



The palpi of the scorpion take no share in the formation of the 

 generative system in either sex: both male and female are provided 

 with a pair of peculiar comb-like appendages, attached directly 

 behind the genital aperture, which is situated at the middle line of 

 the under and posterior part of the abdomen. Miiller has observed 

 that the teeth in the comb of the male scorpion {Buthus Africanus) 

 are much more numerous and smaller than those in the female ; but 

 the sexes are not otherwise distinguishable outwardly. The males 

 appear to be fewer in number than the females. 



The testis of the scorpion is a long and slender tubulus, which 

 divides, and the divisions anastomose together to form three loops or 

 meshes. A short blind sac ( Vesicula glandularis) communicates 

 with the termination of the tubulus, and the common duct terminates 

 in an oblong receptacle, the outlet of which is situated close to the 

 corresponding one on the opposite side of the body, at the middle of 

 the under part of the last segment of the thorax. 



The tubular oviduct of the female scorpion divides and unites with 



