— 206 — 



that Aristotle has nothing to say about bees, originating from 

 oxen, as if he kuew nothing about it; because Pliny quotes 

 Virgil and not Aristotle.) (1) 



Now Aristotle was very cautious in his statements about 

 the generation of bees, as appears in the foUowing passage 

 concerning the relations between queens, drones and working 

 bees: « The facts observed are as yet not sufficient, but in 

 case they were, we ought to attach more importance to obser- 

 ved facts, than to theories, and to believe in theories then 

 only, when they agree with the facts. » (Aristot., On the Origin 

 of Animals, III, 101. I foUow the translation of Drs. Aubert 

 and AVimmer, Leipzig, 1860, p. 267). 



The juxtaposition of Aristotle and Aldrovandi as scientific 

 observers affords a striking illustration of the stagnant state 

 of naturai science during the twenty centuries which separate 

 them. Aldrovandi gives a certain number of references on the 

 Btigonìa, and, instead of expressing an opinion about them, 

 quotes a passage from Galen, which is merely an avowal of 

 ignorance : 



« Cur vero ex bovis putrefactis generentur apes occulta 

 ratio est vel Galeno testante his verbis: » Si quispiam vero a 

 nobis rationes (naturae) quaerat, eamque omnia a se ipsa doctam 

 ex seseque discentem agere sciat. Ncque enim quo pacto vermes 

 in plantis gignuntur, aat ex equis bobusque vesjjae atque 

 apes, facile nos dicere licet, verum a natura simjjliciter fìunt, 

 nam ncque aves docet volare quispiam, neque nos intelligere, 

 audire, videreque. » 



At the end of his chapter on the Btigonìa, Aldrovandi 

 (1. e. p. 60) reproduces a curious passage from a book « De 



(1) Vallisnieri has this about Aldrovandi (Esperienze etc. p- 147; 1726): quello che 

 ammiro, si è, che l'Aldrovando non ha altro fondamento di dubitare, se non che, 

 come e' dice, id ab Aristotele neiitiquam animadversiim video. 



E i^erch' egli è Aristotele, bisogna 



Credergli, ancorché dica la menzogna. 



