Mr. Brodhurst, again, referring to another species—_Geophilus electricus_—about an inch and a half in length, and in the daytime inconspicuous enough, says: “The light looked like moonlight, so bright was it through the trees. It was a dark night, warm and sultry. Taking a letter, I could read it. It resembled an electric light, and proceeded from two centipedes and their trails. The light illuminated the entire body of the animal, and seemed to increase its diameter three times. It flashed along both sides of the creature in sections, there being about six, from head to tail, between which the light played, moving, as it were, perpetually in two streams. The trail extended one and a half feet from each centipede over the grass and gravel walk, and it had the appearance of illuminated mucus. On securing one of the creatures for examination, I found on touching it the light was instantly extinguished.”[153] The display is, therefore, voluntary, nor could Mr. Brodhurst ever get his centipedes to shine in captivity. ----- Footnote 146: Chambers’s Encyclopædia. Footnote 147: White, Natural History of Selborne (stereotyped edition), p. 84. Footnote 148: Ibid., p. 353. Footnote 149: Bull. Soc. Entomolog. Ital., 1885-7. Footnote 150: Cassell’s Illustrated Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” Act i., Scene 5, Note 137. Footnote 151: C. F. Holder, Living Lights. Footnote 152: Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1900. Footnote 153: C. F. Holder, Living Lights. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXVI Scorpions and suicide—The act proved—Intention probable—Conflicting evidence—Scorpions and cockroaches—Concentrating backwards—Economy of poison—Decorous feeding.