THE SC0L0PEN D R A AND GALLY WORM. 279 
big with young, in a glass vessel, and she was seen to de- 
vour them as fast as they were excluded; there was but one 
only of the number that escaped the general destruction by 
taking refuge on the back of its parent ; and this soon after 
revenged the cause of its brethren, by killing the old one 
in its turn. 
Were it worth the trouble, these animals might be kept 
living as long as curiosity should think proper. Their chief 
food is worms and insects ; and upon a proper supply of these 
their lives might be lengthened to their natural extent. How 
long that may be we are not told ; but if we may argue from 
analogy, it cannot be less than seven or eight years • and 
perhaps, in the larger kind, double that, duration. As they 
have somewhat the form of the lobster, so they resemble that 
animal in casting their shell, or, more properly, tlteir skin • 
since it is softer by far than the covering of the lobster and 
r.et with hairs, which grow from it in great abundance,’ par- 
ticularly at the joinings. The young lie in the womb of the 
parent, each covered up in itsown membrane, to the numbei 
of forty or iifiy, and united to each other by an oblono- 
thread, so as to exhibit altogether the form of a chaplet. ° 
There is, however, a scorpion of America, produced from 
the egg, in the manner of the spider. The eggs are no larger 
than pin’s points; and they are deposited ir. a web, which 
they spin from their. bodies, and carry about with them till 
they are hatched. As soon as the young ones are excluded 
(r °m the shell, they get upon the back of the parent, who 
turns her tail over them, and defends them with her stino-. 
It seems probable, therefore, that captivity produces that 
tin natural disposition in the scorpion, which induces it to 
destroy its young; since, at liberty, it is found to protect 
tuem with such unceasing assiduity. 
The Scolopendra and Gaely-wokm. Of these 
hideous and angry insects we know little, except the fio Ure 
and the noxious qualities. Though with us there are insects 
somewhat resembling them in form, we are placed at a happy 
distance from such as are really formidable. With us they 
seldom grow above an inch long; in the tropical climates 
l hev ate often found above a quarter of a yard. 
fhe Scolopendra is otherwise called the Ctnlipes , from the 
Humber of its feet ; and it is very common in many parts of the 
J Vor jd, especially between the tropics. Those of the East 
* 'idles where they grow to the largest size, are about six 
u ches long, of a ruddy colour, and as thick as a man’s finger: 
'ey consist of many joints ; and from each joint is a leg on 
