Paper, 'The reputed suicide of scorpions' by Alfred Gibbs Bourne

Description

Bourne writes: 'The legend that a scorpion when placed within a ring of red-hot embers will, after making futile efforts to pass the fiery circle which surrounds it, deliberately kill itself by inflicting a wound with its sting in its own head is said to emanate from Spain, and is of considerable antiquity: it has been, moreover, attested by very high authority.'

Annotations in pencil and ink throughout.

Subject: Zoology

Received 22 December 1886. Read 13 January 1887. Communicated by Edwin Ray Lankester.

A version of this paper was published in volume 42 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'The reputed suicide of scorpions'.

Reference number

PP/10/4

Earliest possible date

1886

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

12 pages

Format

Manuscript