SCORPIONS. 
225 
by Mr. Hutchinson, viz., that the ‘ popular idea regarding 
scorpionic suicide is a delusion based on an impossibility,’ is 
wholly untenable ; indeed, the recurved direction of the sting, 
which he refers to as creating the impossibility of the animal 
destroying itself, actually facilitates the operation of inflicting 
the wound. I suppose Mr. Hutchinson, arguing from the ana- 
logy of bees or wasps, imagined that the sting would be bent 
forwards upon the body, whereas the wound of the scorpion is 
invariably inflicted by a recurvation of the tail over the back of 
the animal. 
It will be perceived that these observations were not 
made by Dr. Allen Thomson himself, and that there are 
certain inherent discrepancies in the account which he 
has published — such, for instance, as the reason given for 
trying and repeating the experiment, the method being 
clearly a cumbersome one to employ if the only object 
were that of 6 disposing of’ the animals. Nevertheless, 
as Dr. Thomson is a high authority, and as I learn from 
him that he is satisfied regarding the capability and vera- 
city of his informant, I have not felt justified in suppress- 
ing his evidence. Still I think that so remarkable a fact 
unquestionably demands further corroboration before we 
should be justified in accepting it unreservedly. For if it 
is a fact, it stands as a unique case of an instinct 
detrimental alike to the individual and to the species . 1 
1 For additional information on this subject, see my more recently pub- 
lished work on Mental Evolution of Animals . 
