VISION IN INSECTS. 129 



examined a little closely, it will be found to have the 

 appearance of a multiplying glass, the sides, or facet- 

 tes, resembling a brilliant cut diamond. Puget adapt- 

 ed the eye of a flea [Pidex irritans) in such a posi- 

 tion as to see objects through it by means of a micros- 

 cope, and nothing could exceed the singularity of the 

 exhibition. ' A soldier, who was seen through it, ap- 

 peared like an army of pigmies ; for while it multiplied 

 it also diminished the object : the arch of a bridge ex- 

 hibited a spectacle more magnificent than human skill 

 could perform ; and the flame of a candle seemed the 

 illumination of thousands of lamps.'* Leeuwenhoeck, 

 in the same manner, looked through the eye of a dra- 

 gon-fly {Libellula), and viewed the steeple of a church 

 which was 299 feet high, and 750 feet from the place 

 where he stood. He could plainly see the steeple, 

 though not apparently larger than the point of a fine 

 needle. He also viewed a house in the same manner, 

 and could discern the front, distinguish the doors and 

 windows, and perceive whether they were open or 

 shut.t 



Swammerdam has given us so beautiful an account 

 of the eye of the hive-bee [Jlpis mellifica), that our 

 .pages will be enriched by abstracting it. The outer 

 coat (cornea) of a bee's eye is stiff, hard, flexible, 

 and transparent, similar to a very thin plate of horn. 

 It is not smooth, as in men and other animals, but di- 

 vided by various and manifold divisions, which resem- 

 ble globules or little spheres ; and hence Dr Hooke 

 and others supposed that the insect's eye was a con- 

 geries of innumerable little eyes, each agreeing in 

 structure with the eyes of the larger animals ; but this 

 Swammerdam was unable to verify. The divisions in 

 the eye of the bee, indeed, are by no means globular, 

 but rather six-sided, exactly like the closed cells of 

 the comb, rising into a convex and globular surface, 



* Goldsmith's Anim. Nat. iv, 320. 

 t Select Works by Hoole. 



