VISION IN INSECTS. 129^ 



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

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

 cettes, resembling a brilliant cut diamond. Puget 

 adapted the eye of a flea {Pidex irritajis) in such a 

 position as to see objects through it by means of 

 a microscope, and nothing could exceed the singu- 

 larity of the exhibition. " A soldier, who was seen 

 through it, appeared like an army of pigmies; ibr 

 while it multiplied it also diminished the object : the 

 arch of a bridge exhibited a spectacle more magni- 

 ficent than human skill could perform; and the ilame 

 of a candle seemed the illumination of thousands of 

 lamps *." Leeuwenhoeck, in the same manner, looked 

 through the eye of a dragon-fly (Libel lida), 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 per- 

 ceive whether they were open or shutf. 



Swammerdam has given us so beautiful an ac- 

 count of the eye of the hive-bee {Jpis mellijica), 

 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 divided by various and manifold divi- 

 sions, which resemble globules or little spheres ; 

 and hence Dr. Hooke and others supposed that the 

 insect's eye was a congeries 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, ex- 

 actly like the closed cells of the comb, rising into a 



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

 t Select Works by Hoole. 



