IHS SCORPION. 2lt 



©percula of the gills armed at all points with (Irong 

 fpines. Thefe weapons are of themfelves fufficiently for- 

 midable to thofe employed in the capture of this fifh ; 

 but thej have been rendered flill more frightful by a 

 belief that they are fupplied with venomous matter, 

 Jiondeletius mentions a boy who was miferably hurt by 

 attempting to place one in his bofom : he is fully per- 

 fuaded that the wound was poifonous, and for that reafon 

 mentions a prefcrlption delivered by the ancients as its " 

 cure. He applied the liver of the filh, with an addition 

 of a bruifed lentifcus, to the wound, and thereby prevent- 

 ed thofe dreadful efFe£ls which were imagined to be the 

 pnavoidable confequences of a flioke from this animal |j» 



II Rofidcl. de pifcib. art. Scorpius. 

 D d3 



