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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 1, 4 January 1908, Page 25

It has often been alleged that animals at times commit suicide, and their suspicious behaviour when captured is cited as evidence of this statement. Experiments have proved the fallacy of this view, however, notably those carried out some years ago by Dr. E. Ray Lankester, and Professor Bourne, of Madras. Scorpions were confined in an extremely hot place, from which escape was impossible, and their frantic gymnastics were carefully studied. As in the case of the tortured rattlesnake biting his own body, the action of the scorpion in an apparent attempt to put an end to its sufferings by stinging its head was purely museular, and Dr. Lankester himself compared the action to the biting the dust attributed to men who die in hand-to-hand struggles, or to biting of their own band or arm by children in a paroxysm of anger.