ing: — The rays of llie .snnnner sim was focussed on the 

 back of the creature until death : others were slowly 

 heated in a glass bottle, when quite commonly the sting 

 was passed over the ImhIv as if to remove some irritant 

 and poison exuded from the sting: some were surroimded 

 by a circle of fire, otliers were dropped into strong acids 

 or alkalies, they were drowned in water, alcohol, -tlier, 

 tormented witli burning phos]»horus, electrified by strong 

 shocks and lastly. !l specimens were pierced by the ex]>eri 

 menter with their own stings. At an evening meeting 

 he exhibited a specimen along with this stateujoit :-- 

 "The scorpion I caught at 11 o'clock this morning: f at 

 once pierced him in three places with his own sting on 

 wliich in eacli case was a drop of ])oison. In the last 

 inoculation, I held th',' sting in the wound, and sipieezing 

 the bulb of the sting witii the pincers forcibly ejected 

 ]Kns(m. The creature is alive and active I 



It seems to me that the behaviour of Dr. i>reijcr's 

 scorpion is capable of another interpretation. The self 

 iniiicted wound may have been accidental, although this 

 possibility was considered and rejected by the experi- 

 menters. It was explained that the olfeiiding 'stick was 

 attacked furiously by the sting ' before the accident 

 occurred: thus the creature may have suffered from 

 fatigue, and the ill directed blow that }»ierced its own 

 skin instead of the stick may have missed its mark tinougli 

 nei-vous or muscular exhaustion. However this may be, 

 a more vital point is the actual cause of death. Is it not 

 possible that death was caused by the entry of --ti-oiig 

 spirits through the v/ound? 



The 'viuestinii is of considerable interest from an 

 evolutionary stand point. Scorpions are of exti^eme 

 antiquity, dating back to the Silurian period, and thus 

 long preceeding the earliest vertebrates. If the sucidal 

 habit really is general amongst scorpions, there ha-i been 

 perpetuated a character detrimental both to individual 

 and race. Whilst murder and cannibalism amongst 

 animals may have value in establishing a virile race. 



