SCORPIONS. 223 
reference to the common black scorpion of Southern India, 
which was observed by me some years ago in Madras. 
One morning a servant brought to me a large specimen of 
this scorpion, which, having stayed out too long in its nocturnal 
rambles, had apparently got bewildered at daybreak, and been 
unab]e to find its way home. To keep it safe the creature was 
at once put into a glazed entomological case. Having a few 
leisure minutes in the course of the forenoon I thought I would 
see how my prisoner was getting on, and to have a better view 
of it the case was placed in a window in the rays of the hot 
sun. The light and heat seemed to irritate it very much, and 
this recalled to my mind a story which I had read somewhere 
that a scorpion, on being surrounded with fire, had committed 
suicide. I hesitated about subjecting my pet to such a terrible 
ordeal, but taking a common botanical lens, I focussed the rays 
of the sun on its back. The moment this was done it began to 
run hurriedly about the case, hissing and spitting in a very 
fierce way. This experiment was repeated some four or five 
times with like results, but on trying it once again, the scorpion 
turned up its tail and plunged the sting, quick as lightning, into 
its own back. The infliction of the wound was followed by a 
sudden escape of fluid, and a friend standing by me called out, 
4 See, it has stung itself : it is dead / and sure enough in less 
than half a minute life was quite extinct. I have written this 
brief note to show (1) that animals may commit suicide ; (2) 
that the poison of certain animals may be destructive to them- 
selves. 
The following corroborative evidence on the subject 
was then supplied by Dr. Allen Thomson, F.R.S. (‘ Nature/ 
vol. xx., p. 577) : — 
Doubts having been expressed at various times, even by 
learned naturalists, as to the reality of the suicide or self-de- 
struction of the scorpion by means of its own poison, and these 
doubts having been again stated in 4 Nature/ vol. xx.,p. 553, by 
Mr. B. F. Hutchinson, of Peshawur, as the result of his own 
observations, I think it may be useful to give an articulate 
account of the phenomenon as it has been related to me by an 
sve- witness, which removes all possible doubt as to its occurrence 
under certain circumstances. 
While lesiding many years ago, during the summer months, 
at the baths of Sulla in Italy, in a somewhat damp locality, my 
informant together with the rest of the family was much 
annoyed by the frequent intrusion of small black scorpions into 
16 
