46 GENERATION OF INSECTS 



the experiment, at different times and places, of putting 

 pieces of meat near the apiaries, but the bees would never 

 go near them. Still, if you do not credit my statement 

 in the matter, Signor Carlo, at least you will believe what 

 Aristotle says in chapter 40 of book 14 of the " History 

 of Animals " ; you will believe Varro, and Didymus, who 

 copied him; and the Greek, Manuel Philes, who once 

 flourished, having obtained all the material of his work 

 from ^lianus. Then there is the authority of Curopalata 

 and of Balbo, emperors of Constantinople, and finally 

 there is Pliny, who surely has weight with you ; he wrote : 

 " Omnes carne vescuntur, contra quam apes, quae nullum 

 corpus attingunt." But good Pliny, forgetting probably 

 this statement, contradicts himself in chapter 14, book 21, 

 where he wrote : " Si cibus deesse censeatur apibus, 

 uvas passas siccasve, ficosque tusas, ad fores earum 

 posuisse conveniet. Item lanas tractas madentes passo, 

 aut defruto, aut aqua mulsa. Gallinarum etiam crudas 

 carnes." 



On considering this manifest contradiction of Pliny's 

 I thought it might be due to an error in the copy, but I 

 removed all doubt by comparing this passage with many 

 old written texts of the most celebrated libraries of Italy. 

 In all I invariably found the same words as occur in the 

 old Pliny printed in Rome in 1473 ^^^ ^^ ^^^ Parma edi- 

 tion of 1480. There is however this difference to be 

 noted, i. e. all the printed works give : " Gallinarum 

 etiam crudas carnes,'' while the MSS read : " gallinarum 

 etiam nudas carnes." I leave the critics to decide which 

 is the better reading, but I believe that Pliny wrote : " cru- 

 das carnes," having obtained his data from Columella, 

 who, in chapter 14 of book 9 of his treatise, states that 

 when food was lacking for the bees, many persons were 



