BEES 43 



I repeat that many were, and still others are now, im- 

 bued with this idea, as for instance; Pietro Crescenzi, 

 Ulysse Aldrovandi, Fortunio Liceto, Jerome Cardano, 

 Thomas Moufet, John Johnston, Francis Grembs, Thom- 

 as Bartholin, Francesco Folli, inventor of the instru- 

 ment which indicates the humidity and dryness of the 

 air, and Philip James Sachs, a man of most inquiring 

 mind, who in his learned book the " Gamberologia " 

 makes every effort to uphold this thing as true; and 

 though Johann Sperling, who is an accurate writer, had 

 stated in his " Zoology " that during a great pestilence 

 among the herds of Wittemburg, that fictitious genera- 

 tion of bees was not observed, nor seen in any way, nev- 

 ertheless, Sachs, quoting in his own defense the " Idol- 

 atry," of Gerard Voss, answers that the coldness of the 

 climate of that country was the cause of the failure to 

 produce bees. 



The artificial generation of bees was also a matter of 

 belief with Father Athanasius Kircher, who even went 

 further, stating in the twelfth book of the " Subterranean 

 World '^ that worms resembling caterpillars arise in the 

 dung of oxen, and putting out wings change into bees. 

 I do not know whether that estimable author had ever 

 carefully made this experiment ; but when I made it, fol- 

 lowing Father Kircher's directions and leaving the dung 

 in an exposed place, worms were hatched invariably in 

 Spring, Summer and Fall, and from the worms arose 

 flies and gnats, but not bees : if however the dung were 

 kept in a tight place where no flies nor gnats could pene- 

 trate to lay their eggs, I observed no generation of any 

 kind. 



Returning to my subject, I afUrm anew that numerous 

 modern authors are convinced that bees originate in the 



