146 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Seba, Moore, &c. assert their stings are fatal. 



M. Maupertuis, he employed scorpions of both 

 sexes, newly caught, and apparently active and 

 vigorous. 



The scorpion of the tropical climates being 

 much larger, is, probably, much more venomous. 

 Helbigius, however, who resided for many years 

 in the East, assures us that he was often stung 

 by the scorpion, and never received any material 

 injury from the wound; a painful tumor, he says, 

 generally ensued, but he always cured it by 

 rubbing the part with a piece of iron or stone, as 

 he had seen the Indians, until the flesh became 

 insensible. Seba, Moore, and Bosnian, never- 

 theless, give a very different account of the 

 scorpion's malignity; they assert that the wound 

 is fatal if not immediately relieved. The place 

 becomes inflamed, and the surrounding parts 

 often turn livid, and require to be carefully 

 dressed to prevent mortification. 



The disposition of these creatures is exceed- 

 ingly irascible. When taken they act with per- 

 fect fury; they rush against the sides of the /ves- 

 sel in which they are inclosed, and endeavor to 

 sting every thing which comes near them. Mau- 

 pertuis put three scorpions and a mouse in the 

 same vessel together, and they all immediately 

 stung the little animal in different places ; the 

 mouse, thus assaulted, stood for some time upon 

 the defensive, and at last killed them all, one 

 after the other, and even survived the severity of 

 the wounds it had received. Wolkamer trieci 



