no SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



ments showed that the scorpion could not kill itself in 

 this way, as its poison does not act on itself. Moreover, 

 it has been shown by Professor Bourne, of Madras, that 

 although scorpions constantly fight with one another, 

 they never attempt to use their stings in these battles, 

 but only their powerful, lobster-like claws. The stings 

 would be useless, and are reserved for their attacks on 

 animals susceptible to the poison. I also found the 

 ground for the belief that the scorpion kills itself when 

 enclosed in a fiery circle. Incredible as it may appear in 

 regard to such denizens of the hot regions of the earth, 

 both the desert scorpion and the large dark-green 

 Indian scorpions actually faint and become motionless 

 and insensible when exposed for a few minutes to a 

 temperature a little above that of the human body. This 

 was carefully ascertained by using an incubator and a 

 thermometer. The scorpion in the fiery circle lashes 

 about with its sting, and then suddenly faints owing to 

 the heat. If removed from the heat it recovers com- 

 pletely ; but, of course, when it is supposed to have 

 committed suicide, no one takes the trouble to remove it. 

 I made, several times, the actual experiment of placing a 

 large active scorpion within a ring-like wall, a foot in 

 diameter, formed by live coals. The scorpion never 

 stung itself. On one occasion it walked out over the 

 coals, and on other occasions, after lashing its tail and 

 running about, fainted, and became motionless. 



Jelly-fishes are often called " sea-nettles," because of 

 the microscopic poison-bearing threads which they dis- 

 charge from their skin. These are used to paralyse 

 their prey, and, in a few kinds only, are sufficiently 

 powerful to cause a " stinging " effect when they come 

 into contact with a bather's skin. Sea-anemones are 

 also armed with these minute threads, and their poison 

 has been extracted and studied. The spines of star- 



