THE POISON OF THE SCORPION. 
§ 648.] 
495 
minutes, in subcutaneous doses equal to 10 mgrms. of the dried poison. 
It is apparently a heart poison, but nothing is known of its composition. 
Sautesson, 1 from a partial chemical examination, believes that the poison 
is partly a nuclein-holding substance and partly an albumose. 
II.—The Poison of the Scorpion. 
§ 648. There are several species of scorpions. The small European 
variety {Scorpio europccus) is found in Italy, the south of France, and 
the Tyrol ; the African scorpion {Bothus afer, L.), which attains the 
length of 16 cm., is found in Africa and the East Indies ; Androctonus 
funestus is found in North and Mid Africa, and attains a length of 9 cm. ; 
and the Androctonus occitanus , 8-5 cm. long, in Spain, Italy, Greece, 
and North Africa. 
In the last joint of the tail the scorpion is provided with two oval 
glands, the canal of which leads the secreted venom into a round 
bladder, and this last is connected with a sting. When the sting is 
inserted, the bladder contracts, and expels the poison through the 
hollow sting into the wound. The smaller kinds of scorpion sting 
with as little general effect as a hornet, but the large scorpion of Africa 
is capable of producing death. There is first irritation about the wound, 
and an erysipelatous inflammation, which may lead to gangrene. 
Vomiting and diarrhoea then set in, with general weakness and a fever, 
which may last from one to one and a half days ; in the more serious 
cases there are fainting, delirium, coma, convulsions, and death. 
According to G. Sanarelli , 2 the blood corpuscles of birds, fishes, frogs, 
and salamanders are dissolved by the poison ; only the nucleus remain¬ 
ing intact ; the blood corpuscles of warm-blooded animals are not 
affected. W. H. Wilson 3 found that in guinea-pigs the poison caused 
hyper-secretion and death from asphyxia. • The coagulability of the 
blood was not altered. 
Valentin made some experiments on frogs with the Androctonus 
occitanus. He found that soon after the sting the animal remains quiet, 
but on irritation it moves, and is thrown into a transitory convulsion ; 
to this follow twitchings of single muscular bundles. The frog is pro¬ 
gressively paralysed, and the reflex irritability is gradually extinguished 
from behind forwards ; at first the muscles may be excited by electrical 
stimuli to the nerves, but later they are only capable of contraction by 
direct stimuli. Scorpion poison has but little, if any, effect taken by 
the mouth ; experiments have been made on dogs by Blanchard, show¬ 
ing that they can eat scorpions without injury. 
1 Faust, Die thierischen Gifte, Braunschweig, 1906. 
2 G. Sanarelli, Bollet. della Soc. della sez dei cult, delle Scienze med., v. 202, 1888. 
3 Proc. Physiol. Soc., 1904. 
