370 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 14, 1900. 



absorbed or taken thru an organic membrane. We call 

 this osmosis. A good definition, then, of digestion, is that 

 it renders the food osmotic. It is often defined as the pro- 

 cess of solution, or dissolving the food. This is not correct. 

 Some substances are not osmotic, like the albumen of an 

 egg or blood, altho these are liquids. These substances, 

 then, must be digested or they can not be absorbed. There 

 are other liquids of like nature. Some liquids, like cane- 

 sugar, while readily soluble need digestion. Thus without 

 doubt cane-sugar must be digested before it is absorbed into 

 the blood. The bee does this with the cane-sugar of nectar, 

 and thus changes it into the reducing-sugar of honey. 

 When we eat honey the bee has done our digestion for us, 

 but when we eat cane-sugar we must do it for ourselves. 



The lowest branch of animals, the protozoa, have but a 

 single cell, and are thus in structure like the yolk of an egg. 

 These, of course, have no digestive canal, but they have a 

 wonderful power of taking their food into themselves and 

 digesting it, and thus are as truly animals as are we our- 

 selves. The little microscopic amu^ba is one of these pro- 

 tozoas. Nearly all other animals possess an alimentary or 

 digestive tube. I say nearlj- all, for some animals, like the 

 tape-worm, have, in the economy of their lives, found places 

 where their food is alreadj' digested, and thus need no 

 digestive canal, so they have none. Doubtless they once 

 had one, but thru disuse it was snatcht away. If we 

 wish to keep our organs vigorous and intact we must use 

 them. 



The coral animals have a digestive canal, but only have 

 a mouth-opening. The animals above the coral branch, if 

 they have an alimentary canal at all, have a complete one ; 

 that is, a tube with an opening at each end. Most animals 

 with a complete alimentary canal have the tube difieren- 

 tiated into mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small and large 

 intestines. The bee is no exception to this statement. Thus 

 in the bee we have a mouth, lesophagus, two stomachs, 

 small and large intestines. The mouth of the bee, like our 

 own, receives the salivary liquids, which, in their case, un- 

 like ours, are the main digestive liquids. The oesophagus 

 of the bee is small, and conducts from mouth to stomach. 

 The honej'-stomach is just above the true-stomach, and 

 this is doubtless the seat of all honey-digestion. That is, 

 the cane-sugar of nectar is changed to the reducing-sugar 

 of honey, which is a mixture of dextrose and Isvulose in 

 this honey-stomach. This honey-stomach, then, is not 

 comparable to the crops in chickens. The crop is simply a 

 store-house for food, while this honey-stomach is really a 

 true-stomach, in that digestion is done in it. 



Succeeding the honey-stomach is the long, bent, true- 

 stomach of the bee. This is considerabh' larger than the 

 honey-stomach, and in this the digestion of the albuminoids 

 or of the bee-bread or pollen takes place. There are many 

 short tubes attacht at both ends to the true-stomach. These 

 were once thought to act as does the liver of higher ani- 

 mals. But they are now known to be organs of excretion, 

 and so answer to our kidneys. Indeed, the structural differ- 

 ence is not great, for our kidneys consist of a great number 

 of small tubules. In the bee these tubules, instead of being 

 mast together, as in the kidneys, are separate. We know 

 that these are kidneys in function, as urea has been found 

 in them. These are often called malpighian tubules, which 

 word is strangely misspelt in the last edition of the " A 

 B C of Bee-Culture." The small and large intestines are 

 probably little more than conduits for the waste of fecal 

 matter. Doubtless digested material not absorbed in the 

 stomach may be taken into the blood from the intestines. 



There are very large glands in the head and thorax of 

 all worker-bees. The upper head-glands of the thorax 

 empty in the common tube just at the base of the ligula or 

 tongue of the bee. There is little doubt that this secretion 

 furnishes ferment which digests the cane-sugar of nectar. 

 Its position and the large extent of the g'lands make this 

 almost certain. The further fact that we know of no other 

 source for this digestive liquid adds to the argument. It is 

 marvellous how much the bee does at one time. It gathers 

 honey, gathers pollen, and is at the same time hard at work 

 digesting the honey in the honey-stomach. And added to 

 this is its hard labor in flying from flower to flower, and in 

 carrying its load of pollen to the hive. Bees have been 

 found to make a mile in five minutes, altho loaded with 

 nectar. 



The lower head-glands empty on the side of the mouth. 

 They look like a string of onions, and are very ample. 

 Cheshire is assuredly mistaken in stating that these glands 

 furnish the food for the larva;. I have tried experiments 

 which I shall speak of later, which entirely disprove this 



statement. Their real function is, without doubt, to digest 

 the pollen or bee-bread, changing this into chyle, which 

 process takes place in the true-stomach. 



As we have said, the honey-stomach is the reservoir 

 in which the honey is convej'ed to the hive, and also the 

 digestive cavitj' where the cane-sugar of nectar is changed 

 to the reducing-sugar of honey. At the lower end of the 

 honey-stomach is the little globular stomach-mouth, a curi- 

 ous little organ, which undoubtedly serves to obstruct the 

 pollen-grains which are taken in with the nectar from this 

 liquid as the bee is gathering or flying to the hive. If we 

 quarter an apple and imagine the quarters slightly sep- 

 arated yet united at the peel by elastic rubber strips, we 

 will have a close copy of this stomach-mouth. The inside 

 of the quarters should be covered with long hairs which 

 point downward. These quarters, as the bee is flj-ing, are 

 constantly opening and shutting. The nectar passes in be- 

 tween them, carrying the pollen-grains. As they close 

 they pass the honey back into the honey-stomach, but the 

 hairs hold on to the pollen-grains, and so they are con- 

 stantly past thru the true-stomach where, as we have 

 already seen, they are digested. The bee also takes the 

 bee-bread from the cell into its mouth, mixes this with the 

 secretion from the lower head-glands, already described, 

 and then passes this into the true-stomach. Onlj' the nurse- 

 bees, or younger workers, possess these lower head-glands 

 in full development. Thus the nurse-bees for the most part 

 digest the proteid food. 



A loose tube extending from the lower part of the 

 stomach-mouth reaches down into the true-stomach. Thus 

 unless the honey-stomach is drawn up this serves as a valve, 

 preventing any regurgitation of the food from the true- 

 stomach. But in case the bee wishes to regurgitate this 

 chyle, as the digested pollen is called, it simply raises the 

 honey-stomach, drawing this valve-like tube up. Thus it 

 may or may not act as a valve at the pleasure of the bee. 



The drones and queen have not the lower head-glands, 

 and thus can not digest pollen. Thus the nurse-bees have 

 to feed not only the larva;, but also the drones and queen. 

 The drones and queen are possest of the other glands. In- 

 deed, they need them as the honey is not fully digested or 

 changed into reducing-sugar, and the drones and queen 

 take honey for food, and so need to digest it in part. Even 

 a part of this digestion, as we have already seen, is per- 

 formed by the worker-bees, as they digest the nectar en route 

 to the hive. 



As before stated, Cheshire argues that the secretion 

 from the lower head-glands forms the food of the larval 

 bees. As stated above, I have proved as have others, that 

 this is an error. The nurse-bees digest the pollen, and 

 probably add more or less honey, and jelly or chyle is the 

 food of the larval drones and queen. We know that char- 

 coal is entirely non-osmotic, that is, it can not be absorbed. 

 Therefore if we feed charcoal to an animal it would never 

 pass into the blood. I fed honey with finely pulverized 

 charcoal mixt with it, to a colony of bees in confinement. 

 The bees were not only feeding common brood, but also 

 adding the royal jelly to queen-cells. I found the charcoal 

 in the royal jelly, as also in the cells with the ordinary 

 brood. This proves that this food is chyle, and so regurgi- 

 tated from the true-stomach. If Cheshire were correct, this 

 charcoal must have past thru the walls of the stomach and 

 intestines into the blood, and again thru the walls of the 

 lower head-glands to be mixt with the secretion of these 

 glands. We know that this could never take place. As the 

 larva' food is chyle, this charcoal must of course pass with 

 the chyle as it is regurgitated from the true-stomach. 



Dr. de Planta has shown that the chyle fed to the queen- 

 larva.' is quite dift'erent from that fed to drones and worker- 

 larvjf. If this were as Cheshire holds, a secretion, we 

 could not explain this difi'erence. If, on the other hand, it 

 is chyle, we can certainly see this, by adding more or less 

 hone3-, its nature can be readilj' changed, as it must be by 

 the nurse-bees. 



A few years ago I announced the fact in the bee-jour- 

 nals, that hone^- is digested nectar. There was a great 

 cry from the bee-men, fearing that their product might be 

 injured by such statement. The}' had no need to be thus 

 frightened, for the truth never hurts any one. Indeed, the 

 bee-men should be glad to know and herald forth this fact. 

 I feel sure that honey is a safer and better food than cane- 

 sugar, and just for this reason, that the digestion is partly 

 performed by the bees. There are few acts in all the culi- 

 nary processes that are so neat and unobjectionable as is 

 this wo:iderful transformation in the honey-stomachs of the 

 "pets of the hive." If, as sometimes stated, cane-sugar is 



