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SUPPLEMENT 
In his experiments, Maupertuis caused many dogs and 
pullets to be stung by the scorpions of Languedoc ; but of all 
these animals only a single dog died, which had received on 
that part of the belly without hair three or four wounds from 
the sting of a scorpion which had been previously much 
irritated. All the other dogs, and even the pullets, in spite of 
the fury and repeated blows of scorpions recently taken in the 
country, suffered nothing. 
The author of this last experiment tells us, that in an hour 
after the dog which fell a victim was stung, it became very 
much swelled and staggering. It ejected all that it had in 
its stomach and intestines, and continued for three hours to 
vomit up from time to time a sort of viscous slaver. Its belly, 
which was very tense, diminished after each vomiting, and 
then swelled anew. These alternations of swellings and 
vomitings lasted about three hours, at the end of which the 
dog had convulsions, bit the ground, dragged himself along on 
his fore-paws, and died at last six hours after he was stung. 
Dr. Maccary had the courage to try upon himself, and with 
the same species of scorpion, some experiments, which prove 
that its poison may produce very serious accidents, and that 
it is more active in proportion as the animal is older. He told 
M. Latreille that several of the French soldiers died in Spain 
from the sting of this scorpion. Accidental circumstances, 
as a morbid habit of body, for example, may augment the 
danger. 
D’Opsonville, in his Essais Philosophy sur les Mceurs des 
divers Animaux Etrangers , says, “ the bite of marsh or field- 
snakes, such as those we see in Europe, is commonly as little 
dangerous in Asia. A slight scarification, and the applica- 
tion of a little quick lime, or of a piece of copper rusted with 
verdigris, which is fixed on the wound, will suffice to effect a 
cure. These two receipts are also employed against the sting 
