698 



Popular Science Monthly 



The bee's stinging apparatus as shown up by the microscope. It consists of a sheatli 

 within which move two barbed lancets. These form a hollow tube for the poison 



The Honeybee's Infernal Machine 



I\ proportion to its size, the sting of 

 the honeybee is probably the most 

 effective infernal machine in exist- 

 ence. The stinging apparatus is smaller 

 than that of a rattlesnake, yet a single 

 sting has been known to kill a man. 

 When we realize that it is almost in- 

 visible, and consider what it can do, we 

 cannot fail to be astounded. It seems 

 the very quintessence of devilishness. 



The honeybee's sting is complicated — 

 so complicated that many words and 

 much ink have been u.scd in discussing 

 its construction and use. It is generally 

 conceded that the sting consists of a 

 shaft of three parts, the principal one 

 being a sheath within which move two 

 barbed lancets. Like the barbs of a fish- 

 hook, the lancets are not easily extracted 

 from the flesh into which they have 

 been driven. The sheath and the lancets 

 combined form a hollow tube through 

 which the poison flows from the poison- 

 sac. Two hairy, soft projections, evi- 

 dently very sensitive, inform the bee 

 when she is in contact with a stingable 

 object. 



A snake's fangs are harmless when re- 

 moved from the snake. Not so the bee's 

 sting. Man, with all his ingenuity, has 

 not yet devised a machine or a thrower 

 of poison gas that will continue to act 

 after the soldier is dead, but nature has 

 done something like it in the honeybee. 



At one time it was suppo.sed that tin- 

 poison that accompanies the sting is 

 formic acirl. That is now doubted, al- 

 though the material has an acid reaction. 

 It is a curious fact that there ire other 



poison glands in the bee that are alka- 

 line. A well-known investigator asserts 

 that the secretion of both sets of glands 

 must be mixed to be fully effective. The 

 secretions enter the barbs. Here the two 

 are mixed, later to be force<l out of the 

 channel formed by the sheath and lan- 

 cets and through certain openings in the 

 lancets. Both the channel in question 

 and the openings were formerly supposed 

 to be merely passages for the poison. It 

 has been shown by a skilful investigator 

 that the channels in the lancets are not 

 connected with the poison duct, and that 

 they are smelling organs, used probably 

 in gathering the nectar for the making 

 of honey. 



There is a long list of remedies for the 

 honeybee's sting, all of them worthless. 

 Rubbing or even touching the injured 

 spot does positive harm, because the 

 friction or the pressure forces the poison 

 into the circulation and may intensify 

 ]xiin which would otherwise be only 

 trifling. A well-known authorit>- says, 

 "There is no remedy in the world like 

 letting an ordinary sting alone and 

 going on with the work without even 

 thinking about it." 



At times, with no api)arent pro\oca- 

 tion, honeybees will sting a horse or a 

 cow to death within a few minutes; 

 at others the\- ma>' be thrown around 

 and handled roughh' with no more dan- 

 ger than if they were flies. I ha\'e shaken 

 the contents of a hive over the bare anns 

 •ind necks of young ladies without the 

 slightest injury to any one. Again, one 

 may oul\' walk by a hix'e and be stung. 



