1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



323 



THE HONEY-BEE. 



A REVIEW OF COWAX S NEW SCFEXTIFIC WOKK, 

 I5Y ERNE.ST K. ROOT. 



Agreeably to my promise made some time 

 ago. I will now try to give you a taste of some 

 of the good things that appear in that new 

 scientific work entitled. ■" The Honey-Bee: Its 

 Natural History, Anatomy, and Physiology, by 

 Thomas William Cowan."' The book is a small 

 one, 632 hy l^i. and contains 192 pages; but it 

 represents an immense amount of painstaking 

 work. It is neatly bound, and api)ropriately 

 embossed in gilt. It is wholly scientlhc. and 

 therefore it has little or noth- 

 ing to say regarding practical 

 apiculture, that part being 

 entirely delegated to a former 

 work of the author's. During 

 my spare half - hours in the 

 evening I have been studying 

 the work with a good deal of 

 pleasure. It is not a book 

 that can be read like a story, 

 but it is one that requires at- 

 •tentiouand careful study. Un- 

 like some of the largei- works, 

 it is condensed, but still seems 

 to cover the most that is im- 

 portant from a scientilic point 

 of view regarding our little 

 friends the bees. 



One thing that struck my 

 eye particularly, was the 

 beautiful frontispiece engrav- 

 ing, showing almost the en- 

 tire anatomy of the bee: and 

 I became so much interested 

 in studying it that I here re- 

 produce it for the lienetit of 

 our readers. 



Now, if you will have a lit- 

 tle patience I will try to give 

 you the gist of my reading, 

 and at the same time avoid 

 the use of scientific terms, .so 

 fai" as possible. I may remark, 

 in passing, that the anatomy 

 of the bee is, in many respects. 

 similar to that of the human 

 body: and in describing the 

 various organs and functions 

 I will endeavor to call atten- 

 tion to those that are similar 

 in our own frames. 



I will first call your atten- 

 tion to the alimentary canal 

 — that is. the organs of diges- 

 tion and assimilation. What 

 is digestion? Our author 

 says, '• It is the separation of 

 the nutrient part of food from 

 the non-nutrient, and the con- 

 version of the nutrient into a 

 liquid fit to mingle with the 

 blood, and thus nourish the 

 body of the insect." We all 

 know how the bee gathers up 

 his food thiough his wondei-ful and delicate 

 little tongue. It then passes into a little tube 

 just below the i)oint A. in the engraving, and is 

 called the o'sophagus. or gullet. We find a 

 similar organ in our own bodies, leading from 

 the mouth and communicating directly to the 

 stomach. This o-sophagns passes through the 

 waist of the bee, or thorax, as it is called, and 

 to the honey-stomach G in the abdomen. It is 

 in this little sac. although it can hold but a 

 tiny drop at a time, that millions and millions 

 of pounds of nectar are carried annually and 

 stored in our combs. This sac G is located in 



the fore part of the abdomen, or " liinder " part 

 of the bee. as the boy said. 



Several years ago I had a curiosity to know 

 what the bees were working on. I suspected 

 that they were gathering juices from over- 

 ripened raspberries on the vines. In order to 

 satisfy my.self I grasped a bee by her waist and 

 abdomen, and pulled until the parts were sepa- 

 rated, and then was nwealed the little honey- 

 sac, which had disengaged itself from the ab- 

 domen. This contained a light purple or wine- 

 colcn^d liquid. The size of this honey-sac. asn(>ar- 

 ly as I can ri>collect now, was a good big eighth of 

 an inch: and I should remark that the bee had 

 all that she could contain in her little pocket. 



4-^ 



ECTION OF BEE. f^HOWING ITS INTERiN'AI> ORGAN.S. 



Cheshire says that, when the honey -sac is full, 

 it is i of an inch in diameter. This would 

 agree with my observations. 



STOMACH-MOUTH. 



The next thing that engages our attention is 

 a sort of valve, which has been call the stom- 

 ach-mouth, and is located between the honey- 

 stomach and the trne stomach; viz.. at II. This 

 is one of the most interesting of organs: audi 

 suppose that no part of the internal anatomy of 

 the bee has been studied more, theorized about, 

 dissected, and examined, than this delicate and 



