THB SCORPION. 
tit 
opercula of the gills armed at all points with ftrong 
fpines. Thefe weapons are of themfelves fufficiently for- 
midable to thofe employed in the capture of this fifh j 
hut they have been rendered ftill more frightful by a 
belief that they are fupplied with venomous matter. 
Rondeletius mentions a boy who was miferably hurt by 
attempting to place one in his bofom : he is fully per- 
fuaded that the wound was poifonous, and for that reafon 
mentions a prefcription delivered by the ancients as its 
cure. He applied the liver of the filh, with an addition 
of a bruifed lentifcus, to the wound, and thereby prevent- 
ed thofe dreadful e Hefts which were imagined to be the 
Unavoidable confequences of a ftroke from this animal |[» 
| Rondel, de pifcib. art. Scorpius. 
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