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Scorpion Stings

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Arthropods and Human Skin

Abstract

Scorpions, like spiders, have been regarded with justifiable fear in certain parts of the world since the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Their poisonous stings have caused innumerable deaths. The statistics for Mexico speak for themselves (Mazzotti and Bravo–Becherelle 1963: The records for the period 1940–1949 combined with those for 1957–1958 show that there were 20 352 deaths caused by scorpions, 2068 by snake bites, 274 by Spider bites and a further 1933 unspecified but most likely caused by scorpion stings). In spite of these flgures, and rather similar ones for other regions, Mazzotti and his colleague pointed out that scorpion sting was not listed as a specific cause of death in the International Classification of Diseases in 1963.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Glasgow, UK

    John O’Donel Alexander MB, ChB, FRCP (Glasgow) (Emeritus Consultant Dermatologist, Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Lately Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Dermatology)

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  1. John O’Donel Alexander MB, ChB, FRCP (Glasgow)
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© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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O’Donel Alexander, J. (1984). Scorpion Stings. In: Arthropods and Human Skin. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1356-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1356-0_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-1358-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-1356-0

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