ORDER VI. VEIN- WINGED INSECTS. 257 



The most exalted and the purest minds that have ever 

 drawn their moral illustrations from the works of Nature 

 have singled out this little creature as a wonderful and con- 

 vincing evidence of the design and handiwork of a God. 

 One distinguished writer truly says : " That within so small 

 a body should be contained apparatus for converting the 

 virtuous sweets which it collects into one kind of nourish- 

 ment for itself, another for the common brood, a third for 

 the royal, glue for its carpentery, wax for its cells, poison 

 for its enemies, honey for its master; with a proboscis as 

 long as the body itself, microscopic in its several parts, tel- 

 escopic in its mode of action, with a sting so infinitely 

 sharp that, were it magnified by the same glass which 

 makes a needle's point seem a quarter of an inch, it would 

 yet itself be invisible, and this, too, a hollow tube ; that all 

 these varied operations and contrivances should be included 

 within half an inch of length and two grains of matter, 

 while in the same ' small room' the * large heart* of at least 

 thirty distinct insects is contained, is surely enough to crush 

 all thoughts of atheism and materialism." 



But whatever reflections the examination of their won- 

 derful life and history may excite in the minds of observ- 

 ers, certain it is that, either as pure natural curiosities, or 

 on account of the profit that may be derived from them, 

 bees have ever been the subjects of much research and in- 

 vestigation on the part of practical agriculturists as well as 

 scientific entomologists. We find works descriptive of them, 

 and the manner in which they should be treated so as to 

 make them most productive, in all languages, ancient as 

 well as modern ; and the number of works written on this 

 single species of one genus of insects is greater than those 

 published on any complete genus or order in entomology. 



Among the scientific works on this subject we may par- 

 ticularly refer to those of Swammerdam and Keaumurc, pub- 

 lished about the middle of the last century. The former, 



