42 GENERATION OF INSECTS 



mseus Philadelphus, Archelaus, the Athenian, cited by 

 Varro, Philas of Tarsus (in the description of his famous 

 antidote), Georgius Pisida, Nicander and, lastly, Ovid, 

 who sings in the fifteenth of the " Metamorphoses " : 



" I quoque, delectos mactatos obrue tauros : 

 (Cognita res usu) de putri viscere passim 

 Florilegae nascuntur apes, quae more parentum 

 Rura colunt, operique favent, in spemque laborant." 



Many prose writers also add confirmation to the the- 

 ory, among whom may be mentioned Origen, Plutarch, 

 the Hebrew Philo, etc. These ancients are followed by 

 all the modern philologists and philosophers, who admit 

 this fable to be true, and often on this foundation aspire 

 to erect great structures. Even that sublime writer, that 

 brilliant light of the modern schools, Pierre Gassendi, 

 relates the tale as a true one, and having noticed that 

 Virgil prescribes that the aforesaid operation should oc- 

 cur in the beginning of Spring, before the plants begin to 

 flower : 



" Hoc geritus, Zephyris primum impellentibus undas, 

 Ante novis rubeant quam prata coloribus; ante 

 Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendat hirundo:" 



Gassendi says that the admonition is wisely made, for 

 in that season the bullock [of the experiment] has fed 

 on grasses bearing seeds, which later would have flow- 

 ered ; and he further adds that Virgil and Fiorentino cor- 

 rectly advise that the dead calf be placed on a layer of 

 thyme and cassia, for these herbs contain seeds, most 

 efificacious in the generation of bees ; being very aromatic 

 and pungent, they penetrate the rotten mass of the dead 

 body, and make it turn into those same industrious in- 

 sects. 



