24 Meek and Worthen on a Scorpion and other fossils 
Although the discovery of such a type in our Coal-measures, 
even in the mutilated condition of this specimen, is one of © 
much interest, it is still greatly to be regretted, that its condi- — 
tion is such as to show no traces of the ocelli, neither mesial — 
nor lateral, nor of the palpi and terminal portions of the tail,— _ 
since these, especially the ocelli, are the very parts upon which 
generic distinctions are based by most of the naturalists who 
have investigated the living Scorpions. Consequently, we are 
left entirely without the means of deciding which of the known 
genera it would fall into, if not a new generic type. Its gen- 
eral physiognomy, however, the structure of its mandibles, and 
particularly the possession of the peculiar comb-like organs, 
leave no doubt whatever in regard to its belonging to the fam- 
ily Scorpionide, as defined by the generality of authors. 
On comparison with the only other Scorpion known to us 
_ from the Carboniferous System—(Oyclopthalmus Sternbergi 
from the Coal-measures of Bohemia)—it will be found to differ 
remarkably in having its tail as distinct from the abdomen, in 
form and breadth, as in the modern Scorpions (with which it 
agrees exactly in general appearance, so far as its parts are yet 
known), instead of having its abdomen passing imperceptibly 
into the tail, without any well defined ahiitigs in the form of 
the segments. 
Although our specimen does not retain the anterior part of 
lothorax, and the stoutness of its tail, it resembles Buthus hir- 
sutus, of Wood, from California. From these points of general 
oe and the necessity for some name by which the 
genus, however, when all its characters can be made out, is 
exceedingly improbable ; and we are prepared to believe more 
