The sting of such scorpions as are encountered in this country seems not to be usually serious, although extremely painful and sometimes followed by dangerous sloughing and infection. In Egypt, however, scorpions are encountered which cause no inconsiderable fatality in children under 12, though the sting is rarely fatal in adults. The reason for this limitation of fatalities to children has been shown by Wilson, of the Egyptian Government School of Medicine, to depend on the fact that the average amount of poison in the most venomous of the Egyptian scorpions is capable of killing but about thirty-five kilos. During seven years there were recorded 153 deaths from scorpion sting in Cairo, while the incidence of deaths from this cause is, naturally, much higher in the country districts. In Assouan scorpions caused 1.6 per cent, of the total death rate, according to government statistics.
Although the poison from the scorpion