25 
On the reputed Suicide of Scorpions. 
(By ALFRED GIBBS BOUENE, D.Sc, F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., 
Fellow, University College, London, and Madras XJnivei'sity). 
The statement that a scorpion will under certain circum- 
stances, as when surrounded by a circle of red-hot embers, 
or when exposed to the rays of the sim concentrated by a 
burning glass, deliberately sting itself and thereby cause its 
own death, has been made by several well-known observers. 
Other observers have, however, repeatedly subjected scorpions 
to a great variety of tortures, and have been unable in any 
instance to persuade the victim to commit suicide. 
In a communication recently made to the Royal Society 
of London,^ I have reviewed in detail the evidence which 
has been put forward on both sides of the question ; it is 
therefore unnecessary that I should do so here. 
Romanes ^ has pointed out how remarkable it would be 
to find any animal possessing " an instinct detrimental alike 
to the individual and to the species." It might have been, 
in the face of various positive statements that suicide was 
committed, exceedingly difficult to prove that it was not. 
There is, however, one mode of attacking the question which 
does not seem to have occurred to any one who has hitherto 
attempted to refute the statements, viz., to examine the joo.5.s«- 
hilitij of a scorpion being injured by its own poison. I have 
repeatedly tried a variety of experiments with this end in 
view, and I find that the poison of one scorpion has little, 
if any, influence either upon itself or upon another scorpion. 
It is therefore quite impossible for a scorpion to sting itself 
to death. I was led to suspect that this would be the case 
1 Bead January 13, 1887. 
Animal Intelligence, p. 225. 
