14 



The Scorpions of Egypt. 



NATUEAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



That indefatigable naturalist, 

 Mr. Frank Buckland, gives the fol- 

 lowing account of a fight between 

 a mouse and a scorpion: 



"In February, 1868, I received 

 a box by post containing two live 

 scorpions, kindly presented to me 

 by my friend, the late lamented J. 

 Keast Lord, who had caught them 

 under a stone at Heliopolis, in 

 Egypt. Wishing to test the power 

 of the scorpion's sting, I got 

 glass globe and turned in one of 

 the scorpions. A mouse having 

 been caught in the trap, I thought 

 I might just as well let the scor 

 pion try his powers upon it as the 

 cat. I therefore shook the mouse 

 into the glass with the scorpion. 

 The scorpion, an average-sized 

 one, immediately resisted the af- 

 front; and the mouse, who had 

 never evidently seen a scorpion be- 

 fore, did not know whether he was 

 his friend or his enemy. Not lik- 

 ing the continued jumping of the 

 mouse, the scorpion twisted and 

 began brandishing about his sting. 

 The mouse shortly crossed his 

 path. The scorpion instantly 

 lunged his sting into him. This 

 challenge instantly woke up the 

 mouse, who began to jump up and 

 down like a jack in the box. When 

 he became quiet, the scorpion 

 again attacked the enemy, with his 

 claws extended like the pictures of 

 the scorpion in the zodiac. He 

 made another shot at the mouse, 

 but missed him. I then called 

 'Time!' to give both combatants a 

 rest. When the mouse had got 

 his wind, I stirred up the scorpion 

 once more, and, as 'the fancy' say, 

 'he came up smiling.' The mouse 

 during the interval had evidently 

 made up his mind that he would 

 have to fight, and not strike his 

 colors to a scorpion as he would to 

 a cat. When, therefore, the scor- 

 pion came within range, the mouse 

 gave a squeak and bit him on the 

 back; the scorpion at the same mo- 

 ment planted his sting well be- 

 tween the mouse's ears on the top 

 of his head. The scorpion then 

 tried to retreat, but could not, for 

 one foot had got entangled in the 

 fur of the mouse. The mouse and 

 scorpion then closed, and rolled 

 over each other like two cats fight- 

 ing, the scorpion continually stab- 

 bing the mouse with his sting, his 

 tail going with the velocity of a 

 needle in a sewing machine. When 

 the scorpion got tired, the mouse 

 got hold of his tail with his teeth 

 and gave it a sharp nip. The 

 mouse seized the opportunity, and 



immediately bit off two of the scor- 

 pion's side legs. He then retired, 

 and began to wash his face. I had 

 expected, of course, that the poi- 

 son of the scorpion would have 

 killed the mouse, but he didn't 

 seem a bit the worse for it. When 

 I examined him the next morning 

 he was quite lively and well; and 

 had nearly eaten up the whole of 

 the scorpion for his breakfast. Of 

 course I rewarded the mouse for 

 his plucky conduct by giving him 

 some milk, and by letting him go 

 in a place where it was not likely 

 the cat would find him. 



"Scorpions are inhabitants of 

 hot climates; they live among 

 stones, logs of woods, etc., in such 

 places, in fact, as those inhabited 

 in England by wood lice and cen- 

 tipedes, etc. They are said to at 

 tain the length of twelve inches in 

 Batavia; and along the Gold Coast, 

 I have heard (but hardly believe 

 it) they are found as a good sized 

 lobster; the general size is about 

 three inches long. It not unfre 

 quently happens that scorpions are 

 brought to England in timber 

 ships, etc., and I have received 

 more ; than one scorpion thus 

 brought over. " 



The Amoeba. 



The amceba is one of those sin- 

 gular forms of animal life which 

 seemingly' occupy the extreme 

 boundary between animal and veg- 

 etable life. In an article attempt- 

 ing to set forth the distinguishing 

 points between animal and vege- 

 table life, the London Quarterly Re- 

 vietu gives the following descrip- 

 tion of this most remarkable of liv- 

 ing creatures: 



"But perhaps the clearest in- 

 stance of the uselessness of at- 

 tempting to make the possession 

 of a stomach a distinctive feature 

 of animal nature is shown by the 

 history of a group of creatures, of 

 which the well-known and com- 

 mon amceba may be taken as a 

 type. In these there can be no 

 question of definition, for in no 

 sense whatever can they be said to 

 possess a permanent stomach. 



"The amoeba has a just claim to 

 the title of animal, for its affinities 

 with the foraminifera are clear; 

 and no one would deny that these 

 creatures, with their exquisitely 

 beautiful shells, are animals. Nor 

 is this position shaken by the fact 

 that the life history of the amoeba 

 can at present be said to be fully 

 made out. Yet the amoeba has no 

 stomach, possesses indeed no or- 



gans at all, unless we consider its 

 so-called nucleus as one; and there 

 are closely allied forms in which 

 even this is absent. Conceive of a 

 minute drop of transparent jelly, 

 so small as to be invisible without 

 the help of a microscope, a drop of 

 jelly sprinkled and studded with a 

 dust of opaque granules, some- 

 times hiding in its midst a more 

 solid rounded body or kernel call- i 

 ed the nucleus, and perhaps with 

 the outer rind a little different 

 from the internal mass. Conceive 

 further of this amoeba as of no con- 

 stant shape, but like the Empusa 

 shifting, as we look upon it, from 

 one form into another. At one 

 moment it is like a star with strag- 

 gling unequal limbs, at another 

 club-shaped; now it is a rounded 

 square, soon it will be the image 

 of an hour-glass. None of these 

 changes can be referred to currents 

 in the water in which it lives, or to 

 any other forces acting directly up- 

 on it from without. It seems to 

 have within it some inner spring, 

 an inborn power of flowing, where- 

 by this part of it or that moves in 

 this or that direction. And not 

 only do its parts thus shift and 

 change in form, but through their 

 changes the whole body moves 

 from place to place. As we begin 

 to watch it, for instance, at the 

 moment when it is in what may be 

 called its rounded phase, a little 

 promberance may be seen starting 

 out on one side. Speedily the 

 little knob swells, lengthens, flows 

 into a long process. The process 

 thickens, faint streams of granules 

 indicating in which way the cur- 

 rents of the unseen molecules are 

 setting. The substance of the 

 body surges into the process; and 

 as the latter widens and grows 

 thick, the former shrinks and 

 grows small. At last the whole 

 body has flowed into the process; 

 where the body was there is now 

 nothing, and, where the process 

 reached to, the whole body now is. 

 The creature has moved, has flow- 

 ed from one spot into another. 

 Here, then, we have movement 

 without muscles, locomotion with- 

 out any special organs of locomo- 

 tion. We have also feeling with- 

 out nerves or organs of sense, for 

 if a process such as we have de- 

 scribed, while flowing out, meet 

 with any obnoxious body, it will 

 shrink back and stop in its work. 

 And the whole bod}', terrified by 

 some potent shock, will then gath- 

 er itself up into a ball. As it 

 moves without muscles, so also 

 does it eat without a stomach. 

 Meeting in its sluggish travels with 



