84 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



the Rural Neio Yorker aucl other papers, for 

 publislimg it, because, as he states it, " mau- 

 kind are so prone to take up and disseminate 

 error," etc. Now it seems to me tliat Mr. R. 

 is assuming a censorship over the press that 

 is not called for, and is assuming a dogmatic 

 position that he would condemn in others. 

 It has been but a few mouths since in criti- 

 cising me and the " whole popular science 

 world," as he called it, he very learnedly 

 quoted a Latin maxim, '■'magna est Veritas et 

 jv'evalebit" which might be paraphrased, and 

 if not more original, be equally truthful, 

 " magna est vardtas et in'evalet" for self -suf- 

 ficiency must prevail to an alarming extent 

 with any one who pronounces " very few 

 people capable of deciding what is truth," 

 etc., and believes that " mankind are so prone 

 to take up and disseminate error," etc., and 

 relies on his own infallibility as one of the 

 "few capable" of dictating what people 

 should read. 



Are the " people " who read the bee journ- 

 als and the rural press in need of such censor- 

 ship ? I had come to the conclusion that bee- 

 keepers as a class had more than an average 

 •of intelligence, even in a country like ours, 

 where the government is based on the intelli- 

 gence of the people as a whole, and where 

 the freedom of the press is based on the the- 

 ory that falsehood and error can do no harm 

 where free speech and an unshackled press 

 have full license to combat them, for as Mr. R. 

 says, " Truth is mighty and will prevail." 



Mr. Root makes a quotation from " Carpen- 

 ter on the Microscope" confirming the des- 

 cription I give of the wings, except he says, 

 "This circulation [he is speaking of the 

 blood and not of the nervous or pulmonic 

 system of the wings], may be seen readily in 

 the wings of bees young and growing, .... 

 those organs especially whicli are peculiar to 

 the perfect insect being then in a state of 

 rapid growth and having then a vigorous cir- 

 culation of blood through them; but this 

 ^movement soon ceases and the wings dry uj)." 



The last italics are Mr. Root's. I might 

 reply to this in the language of Mr. Root by 

 calling it "sheer folly" or "twaddle" or 

 some of the hard names he so freely applies 

 to all that differ with him, but I cannot be- 

 lieve that Carpenter is a fool, (I believe folly 

 is defined to be " the acts of a fool,") or that 

 it is " idle silly talk," which a "tattler" is 

 guilty of, for he would likely be surprised at 

 the use that Mr. Root made of his language, 

 so contrary to the observations of every other 

 eminent naturalist. 



In the larva state the bee is composed of 

 thirteen segments, eleven of these have each 

 two spiracles or breathing holes, one on each 

 side of the body. As it approaches the pupa 

 state these spiracles are gradually obliterated 

 and grow up, so that all of those on the seg- 

 ments that finally form the abdomen disap- 



pear, and those on the thorax are alone left. 

 As the bee approaches the pupa state there 

 appear on the thorax over four of the ante- 

 rior spiracles little pad-like projections which 

 are the wings doubled up in wads, which may 

 be seen through the pellicle that envelopes 

 the pupa at that time. This skin sloughs oft" 

 in the semi-pupa stage and releases the wads, 

 and it is at this time that Carpenter says that 

 the " circulation may be readily seen,'" as 

 then the wings are but a pulpy mass and so 

 translucent that there is no difficulty in ob- 

 serving the circulating ftuid, for the circula- 

 tion is " then vigorous " to promote their de- 

 velopement and " rapid growth." " But this 

 movement soon ceases and the wings dry 

 up." Of course they do, for the limp, pulpy 

 mass assumes a difterent consistency and de- 

 velopes the complicated elements of the 

 wings, and there is no longer any necessity 

 for an excess of moisture in the wings. The 

 circulation is thence hid from sight inside of 

 the horny tubes and under the covering of 

 minute hair-like xtapillcB that cover the wings. 

 And this is all that Carpenter means to say. 



One other statement of Mr. Root deserves 

 a little notice. He says: 



" So far as eminent naturalists and ento- 

 mologists are concerned, we have only to say 

 it will be the worse for them, if they endorse 

 the paper in question, and its winding up es- 

 pecially." 



Now as friend R. is the oiily naturalist 

 among the many who have read the paper 

 who does not endorse it, the " whole popular 

 science world " must be in a bad fix. Icim't 

 tell how he intends to punish them, but I sup- 

 pose he will publish them in the " Humbug 

 and Swindle " department of his Oleanings. 

 Would not it be a sad spectacle ? But what 

 is the winding up of this paper that he con- 

 demns as "specially" outrageous? The last par- 

 agraph is the statement of a fact that has been 

 settled among uaturalists f or a longtime: i. e. 

 that the bee inftates its body with air when 

 about to fty, so as to decrease its specific gravi- 

 ty, and assist it in flying This is not only appli- 

 ed to insects, but ornithologists state that birds 

 do the same thing, even filling the hollow 

 barrels of their feathers and quills with heat- 

 ed air or gas. In this fact lies a very strong 

 reason why the wings of insects should per- 

 form the office of lungs, for when the body 

 is inflated there are valves at the openings of 

 the spiracles that close and retain the ilir, 

 just as in holding the breath, so at the very 

 time that free respiration is most needed, it is 

 impeded most, unless the wings perform 

 the oflicc of pulmonary organs; for the blood 

 always flows more actively to the members 

 of the animal body that are most in exerci.se. 



The great difficulty with ]\Ir. R., and all of 

 the unscientihi;, is that they overlook the 

 fact that nature accomplishes the same cud 

 by very opposite and diverse means. Because 



