Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/412

400 while acknowledging that the scorpion when thus tortured does sometimes commit suicide, does not believe it is intentional. "Nature," says Brehm, "has set apart man as the only being, in all creation, who under certain circumstances enjoys the dire privilege of destroying his own self." My own observations and experiments, carried out in July, 1881, at the sugar estate "Osado de Lagunillas," jurisdiction of Cardenas (Cuba), in the presence of several relatives and friends, authorize me to assert that the scorpion, after repeatedly attempting to emerge from the circle of fire by which it is surrounded, drawing its cheliform appendages toward its mouth whenever they come in contact with the fire, wounds itself with its own sting in the place called by Flourens the vital point, instantly dying.

I may add that the same experiment has been performed, with identical results, on specimens of different ages, sex, and strength by persons who are wholly deserving of my confidence.

E. Blanchard, Paul Bert, Jousset de Bellesme, and Joyeux-Laffine have studied the poisonous apparatus of the scorpion and the effects resulting therefrom.

The toxic matter is a transparent liquid of acid reaction, which dries easily, is readily dissolved in water, and insoluble in absolute alcohol and ether.

"The scorpion's poison," says Joyeux-Laffine, "is very active, although it lacks all the toxic strength which some authors have attributed to it. Its effects are directly proportionate to the quantity introduced into the system. One drop of this poison in a pure state, or even mixed with a small quantity of water, is sufficient to produce instant death when injected into the cellular tissue of a rabbit. Birds succumb to it as readily as mammals. One drop of this poison is sufficient to kill seven or eight frogs. Fish, and especially mollusks, are not so susceptible. The articulates, however, are surprisingly affected by this poison; the one hundredth part of a drop suffices to kill a good-sized crab. The flies, spiders, and insects upon which the scorpion feeds are, so to speak, fulminated by the sting of this animal."

doctrine of multiple souls among the Calabar negroes is described by Miss Kingsley as including the notion of four souls—the soul that survives death, the shadow on the bush, the dream soul, and the bush soul. The bush soul is detachable from the body, but if damaged or killed in its wanderings the body suffers the same fate. Hence old people are held in respect, even if known to be wicked, because their bush souls must be particularly powerful and astute. The soul that survives death is liable to reincarnation either in a higher or lower form. The dream soul is the particular care of witches, who lay traps for it and return it to the owner on payment.