OF INSECTS. 185 



nothing is. First, as to the chemistry ; how highly con- 

 centrated must be the venom, which, in so small a quantity, 

 can produce such powerful effects 1 And in the bee we 

 may observe, that this venom is made from honey, the only 

 food of the insect, but the last material from which I should 

 have expected, that an exalted poison could, by any pro- 

 cess or digestion whatsoever, have been prepared. In the 

 next place, with respect to the mechanism, the sting is not 

 a simple, but a compound instrument. The visible sting, 

 though drawn to a point exquisitely sharp, is in strictness 

 only a sheath ; for, near to the extremity, may be perceived 

 by the microscope two minute orifices, from which orifices, 

 in the act of stinging, and, as it should seem after the point 

 of the main sting has buried itself in the flesh, are launch- 

 ed out two subtile rays, which may be called the true or 

 proper stings, as being those, through which the poison is 

 infused into the puncture already made by the exterior sting. 

 I have said that chemistry and mechanism are here united ; 

 by which observation I meant, that all this machinery 

 would have been useless, telum imbelle, if a supply of 

 poison, intense in quality, in proportion to the smallness of 

 the drop, had not been furnished to it by the chemical 

 elaboration which was carried on in the insect's body ; and 

 that, on the other hand, the poison, the result of this pro- 

 cess, could not have attained its effect, or reached its 

 enemy, if, when it was collected at the extremity of the 

 abdomen, it had not found there a machinery, fitted to con- 

 duct it to the external situations in which it was to operate, 

 viz. an awl to bore a hole, and a syringe to inject the fluid. 

 Yet these attributes, though combined in their action, are 

 independent in their origin. The venom does not breed 

 the sting ; nor does the sting concoct the venom. (PI. 

 XXXIl. fig. 5.) 



IV. The proboscis, with which many insects are en- 

 dowed, comes next in order to be considered. (PI. XXXII. 

 fig. 6, 7, 8.) It is a tube attached to the head of the animal. 

 In the bee, it is composed of two pieces, connected by a 

 joint ; for, if it were constantly extended, it would be too 

 much exposed to accidental injuries ; therefore, in its in- 

 dolent state, it is doubled up by means of the joint, and 

 in that position lies secure under a scaly pent-house. In 

 many species of the butterfly, the proboscis, when not in 

 use, is coiled up like a watch spring. In the same bee, 

 the proboscis serves the office of the mouth, the insect 

 R 



