6o 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



in the shallow water of mud flats and the subsequent 

 transplantings. My authority was Miss Gordon 

 Cummings' " Wanderings in China." Oyster culture 

 appears to be one of their ancient arts, even more 

 ancient than the mussel culture of La Rochelle 

 described in the note preceding. These bivalves, so 

 delicious and wholesome when thus cultivated, have 

 yielded rich harvests during the last 800 years. All 

 this time we have only supplied our markets with the 

 ill-conditioned and often poisonous varieties that 

 happen to settle anywhere, and most abundantly 

 where sea-water is contaminated with town sewage. 

 The climate of Stangate Creek on the Medway has 

 not sensibly altered since I spent five days there on 

 the Bacchante -quarantine hulk in the autumn of 

 1843. I bought delicious oysters by the bushel from 

 the dredgers there, at the rate of about one penny per 

 dozen. It may be sewage, but cannot be climate, 

 that has exterminated them there. If sewage, there 

 are thousands of other available creeks far away from 

 London. 



Why have we no oysters in these? Mr. Smith's 

 statement concerning the failure of the prize-taking, 

 etc., is a confession of inability to answer this question, 

 — i.e. of our general ignorance. It is most unfair 

 and foolish to await the results of private investi- 

 gations of such a subject. It is a national business 

 which the nation should energetically undertake at 

 the national cost. This might easily be repaid by 

 a royalty on all the subsequent oyster fishing, or 

 rental of the oyster beds. It is not probable that 

 amateurs will devote the large outlay of time and 

 money which is demanded, without prospect of 

 remuneration. 



THE STINGS OF BEES AND WASPS. 



T "WHILST thanking Mr. W. E. Harper for point- 

 V V ing out " in the interest of the many young 

 readers of your interesting paper," the mistake into 

 which I have fallen with regard to the sting of the 

 bee, I trust he will allow me to correct some grave 

 errors in his "correction." 



My mistake arose from the use of too low a power 

 in examining the mounted sting of a bee, which 

 had fallen upon the slide in such a position that the 

 apices of the barbs being towards the eye, do not 

 break the beautifully smooth lines of the shaft, and 

 are therefore invisible except by the use of a higher 

 power. 



Dr. B. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., in his "Trans- 

 formations of Insects," says, " The sting of the bee is 

 made up of two very sharp stylets, which are mounted 

 upon scales attached to the last segment of the 

 abdomen, there being two valve-like sheaths which 

 encase and protect them. The poison glands are 

 formed by two twisted tubes, which lead into a large 

 reservoir, the small opening of which is in a tube 



which emerges between the piercing stylets. When 

 the bee is about to sting, it contracts the muscles of 

 its abdomen and forces out the stylets, and the 

 pressure exercised in doing this gives out a drop of 

 venom, which runs along the perforating instruments 

 into the wound inflicted by them." 



Mr. Harper is evidently under the impression that 

 the sting is torn from the bee, and left in the wound, 



Fig. 24.— Sting, poison-bag, and poison-gland of Humble Dee„ 

 X 20. 



in every instance where it is used. I think this loss 

 of the sting is the exception, as is shown by Hogg to 

 be the case with the wasp ; thus, Sir John Lubbock, 

 F.R.S., &c, says, " Bees which have stung and lost 

 their stings always perish ; " again, Sir Wm. Jardine, 

 F.R.S.E., &c, in vol. xxxiv. of the "Naturalist's- 

 Library," page 41, says, "The darts are each fur- 

 nished with five teeth or barbs set obliquely on their 

 outer side, which give the instrument the appearance 

 of an arrow, and by which it is retained in the wound it 



