HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. S3 



while the eggs pass a reservoir containing the 

 sperm, situated near the termination of the ovi- 

 duct in the vulva. In dissecting the female parts, 

 in the silk-moth, says Mr. Hunter, I discovered 

 a bag, lying on what may be called the vagina or 

 common oviduct, whose mouth or opening was 

 external, but it had a canal of communication be- 

 twixt it and the common oviduct. In dissecting 

 these parts, before copulation, I found this bag 

 empty ; and when I dissected them afterwards, I 

 found it full. (Phil. Trans. 1792. p. 186.) By 

 the most decisive experiments, such as covering 

 the ova of the unimpregnated moth, after exclu- 

 sion, with the liquor taken from this bag, in those 

 which had had sexual intercourse, and rendering 

 them fertile, he demonstrated that this bag w r as a 

 reservoir for the spermatic fluid, to impregnate 

 the eggs, as they were ready for exclusion, and 

 that coition and impregnation were not simulta- 

 neous." Linnaeus thought that there was a sexual 

 intercourse between the queens and the drones, 

 and he even suspected that it proved fatal to the 

 latter. His opinion, on both these points, seems 

 to be confirmed by the experiments of Huber ; 

 who ascertained by repeated observations on 

 newly impregnated queens, " Fuci organum, post 

 congressum, in corpore feminae haesisse, unde exi- 

 tus fatalis expectaridus est ; ita autem accidere re 

 vera non liquet." " Apum regina et mater," says Mr. 

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