SCORPIONS. 225 



iDy Mr. Hutchinson, viz., that the 'popular idea regarding 

 ficorpionic suicide is a delusion based on an impossibility/ is 

 wholly untenable ; indeed, the recurved direction of the sting, 

 which he refers to as creating the impossibility of the animal 

 destroying itself, actually facilitates the operation of inflicting 

 the wound. I suppose Mr. Hutchinson, arguing from the ana- 

 logy of bees or wasps, imagined that the sting would be bent 

 forwards upon the body, whereas the wound of the scorpion is 

 invariably inflicted by a recurvation of the tail over the back of 

 the animal. 



It will be perceived that these observations were not 

 made by Dr. Allen Thomson himself, and that there are 

 <;ertain inherent discrepancies in the account which he 

 lias published — such, for instance, as the reason given for 

 trying and repeating the experiment, the method being 

 ■clearly a cumbersome one to employ if the only object 

 were that of 'disposing of the animals. Nevertheless, 

 as Dr. Thomson is a high authority, and as I learn from 

 him that he is satisfied regarding the capability and vera- 

 city of his informant, I have not felt justified in suppress- 

 ing his evidence. Still I think that so remarkable a fact 

 unquestionably demands further corroboration before we 

 should be justified in accepting it unreservedly. For if it 

 is a fact, it stands as a unique case of an instinct 

 detrimental alike to the individual and to the species. 



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