430 
CLASS ARACHNIDES. 
or other bodies, most frequently in ruins, or in sombre and 
moist places, and even in the interior of houses. They run 
fast ; curving their tail in the form of an arch over the back, 
they turn it in all directions, and make use of it as an offensive 
and defensive weapon; they seize with their talons wood-lice 
and different insects, such as carabi, weevils, orthoptera, &c., 
on which they feed, wound them with the sting of their tail, 
pushing it in front, and then cause their prey to pass between 
their forceps and jaws. They are fond of the eggs of ara- 
neides and those of insects. 
The sting of the European scorpion , as far as it appears, is 
not in general dangerous. That of the scorpion of Souvignar- 
gues, ot Maupertius, or the species which I name reddish 
(occitanus), and which is stronger than the preceding, pro- 
duces, according to the experiments which Dr. Maccary had 
the courage to make upon himself, accidents more serious 
and alarming. The poison appears to be more active in pro- 
portion to the age of the scorpion. Volatile alkali is employed, 
either internally or externally, to arrest its effects. 
Some naturalists have advanced that our indigenous species 
produce two generations in the year. The one which appears 
to me to be the best authenticated, takes place in the month 
of August. According to M. Maccary, the female changes 
skin before she brings forth the young. The male does so 
likewise at the same period. 
4 he female brings forth the young in succession. She 
carries them on her back during the first days, does not then 
come forth from her retreat, and watches for their preservation 
for the space of a month, at the end of which time they are 
sufficiently strong to establish themselves elsewhere, and 
provide for their own subsistence ; after two years they become 
capable of engendering. 
Some have eight eyes, and form the genus Butlius ofM. 
Leach. 
