234 NEWMAN ON THE 



Like to those bees of Trebezouil, 



Which, from the sunniest flowers that glad 



With their pure smile the gardens round, 

 Draw venom forth which drives men mad. 



Should I have leisure, I may do this for your next Number, but 

 it may happen that Delta may have something better to do be- 

 fore that time. 



Now to the scorpions ; and we shall see that Oviedo was fully 

 convinced of the exaggerations of those who talk of fatal effects 

 ensuing from their stings. 



" There are in all the West Indies and Terra Firma scor- 

 pions, which are what in Castille we call Alacranes, and in 

 some parts there are many of them. Concerning this animal, 

 Pliny says, [book ii. cap. 25, that it causes death in three 

 days after it has stung any one,' and that its sting is always 

 mortal to virgins, and in fact, to women in general : and he 

 says other things of it, of which most will not apply to the scor- 

 pions of these parts. For here their sting is not mortal, 

 although it causes much pain for about the space of a quarter 

 of an hour, and sometimes longer. And in these parts I have 

 many times been stung by these scorpions, and I have found 

 out that some give much more pain than others : and this, 

 perhaps, may depend on a person being stung immediately 

 after a meal, or when hungry, or may arise from the state of 

 the scorpion itself; but, be this as it may, no man or woman 

 incurs any danger from it. And I consider the sting of a wasp, 

 (abispa,) to cause quite as much pain as that of the scorpion of 

 these Indies, and of some wasps more. But I, as one who 

 have experienced both, consider that the pain from the scor- 

 pion's sting lasts longest." 



Yours, most truly, 



A. 



Epping, Nov. 27, 1836. 



Art. XXXI. — Further Observations on the Septenary System. 

 By Edward Newman. 



" Quicquid ex Phenomonis non deducitur hypothesis vocanda est." — Newton. 



Four years have elapsed since the publication of " Sphinx 

 Vespiformis." During this period, although it has been coarsely 

 and virulently criticised, no single attempt has been made to 

 demonstrate, by fair argument, the unsoundness of a single 



